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Bebop Spoken There

Steve Coleman: ''If you don't keep learning, your mind slows down. Use it or lose it''. (DownBeat, January 2025).

The Things They Say!

This is a good opportunity to say thanks to BSH for their support of the jazz scene in the North East (and beyond) - it's no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for them many, many fine musicians, bands and projects across a huge cross section of jazz wouldn't be getting reviewed at all, because we're in the "desolate"(!) North. (M & SSBB on F/book 23/12/24)

Postage

17719 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 39 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Jan. 15).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Wed 15: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 15: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 15: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 15: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session. TBC.

Thu 16: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 17: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 17: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 17: Joe Steels Trio w. Graham Hardy @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. (inc. a welcome drink & table reservation). Book at: www.drinks@thepele.co.uk. A ‘Jazz at the Pele’ promotion.
Fri 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 17: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 18: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 18: Alter Ego + Jamie Toms/Graham Don Duo @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 18: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Repas 7 by Night, West St., Berwick TD15 1AS. 7:30pm. Free. Album launch gig.
Sat 18: Delta Prophets @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 19: Glenn Miller Orchestra UK @ Glasshouse, Gateshead. 3:00pm. ‘Glenn Miller & the Rat Pack Era’.
Sun 19: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 19: Spilt Milk @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:15-7:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 19: Tenement Jazz Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 19: Nick Ross Orchestra @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm.
Sun 19: Freight Train (Tobin/Noble/Clarvis) @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 21: ???

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Chris Sharkey Trio Minus 1 @ Jazz Café - March 7

Chris Sharkey (guitar); Andy Champion (bass)
(Review by Steve T)
Being a self-confessed philistine when it comes to piano-less duos and percussion-less bands (sans Gypsy), I'd have likely given this a miss had I known they hadn't managed to raise a drummer for the second of their fortnightly residency. Big mistake.
Last week at the Caff, Alex Munk of Flying Machines cited Sharkey as one of his current guitar heroes, and I'd heard him with ACV Mk 2 and the World Service Project but hadn't quite realised just exactly how fine a guitarist he is.
Song for my Father, renamed Song for my Mother for International Women’s Day, had Sharkey getting loads of notes without ever losing the sense of the melody. The absence of a drummer can isolate a bass solo in particular, but AC is a monster practitioner and some fantastic comping from Sharkey, subtle and un-intrusive, meant it never became boring.
The bass intro could only be Night in Tunisia, and I realised how seldom we hear this Dizzy masterpiece. In contrast, Night and Day is a perennial these days, here taken at a whimsical pace and the interplay between these two old friends belying their telepathy.
Stella by Starlight into the break.
The Caff was comfortably full and lost maybe a table's worth during the interval which isn't half bad for such a free and unpredictable set of difficult music. Andy stayed on upright throughout with Sharkey using a Tele and something a little less solid which, he being a southpaw and to the right of Andy, I couldn't get a good look at.
Something I didn't know, something by Monk, Autumn Leaves and Isotope from Joe Henderson rocking it up and funking it up, both getting some unlikely sounds using different parts and functions of their respective instruments percussively.
In further celebration of Women’s Day, Sharkey proposed a singalong to finish. This won't go well I thoughtbut it did and grown men and women, myself included, joined in a rousing finale more akin to an imbibed evening with a pop/rock covers band or a local folkey. Ivor Cutler from 1969 and something about women of the world taking over or, in the words of Private Frasier, we're all doomed. 
I had a chat with the lovely new barmaid and asked who will make all the weapons and do all the killing when they discover how to keep the population going without men. We agreed they could keep us as pets, lying around like Tomcats.
Steve T.

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