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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18018 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 339 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (May 7).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Gregory Porter + Jo Harrop @ Newcastle City Hall. 7:30pm. Support act: Jo Harrop!

Tue 13: ???

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Recital (stage 2): Leah Kirk (voice) @ The Band Room, Music Studios, Assembly Lane, Newcastle University. 3:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Tannery jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Wed 14: Jerron Paxton @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £24.20. Excellent country blues multi-instrumentalist.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. BACK IN BUSINESS, all welcome!

Thu 15: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: The Greatest in Jazz - Guitarists.
Thu 15: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 15: New Ways of Moving in the Counterworlds @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). John Garner & John Pope.

Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Sophie Speed with the Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ Longframlington Memorial Hall. 7:00pm (doors). Tickets: £12.00. from 01665 570984.
Fri 16: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £10.00.
Fri 16: Peter Donegan & Anthony Donegan @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. ‘Lonnie Donegan - The Stories’.

Sat 17: Teresa Watson Band @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sat 17: The Society Quartet @ Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Tel: 0191 500 9494. £26.00 (inc. two course meal). Line-up: Jason Holcomb, Hannah Taylor, Alix Shepherd & Abbie Finn.
Sat 17: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 17: Archie Brown & the Young Bucks @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues, Americana etc.
Sat 17: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Rockabilly, Western swing etc.

Sun 18: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 12 noon-2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 18: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 18: Ruth Lambert & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 18: Steve Summers Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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

Tuesday, April 04, 2017

GIJF Day 2: Miles Mosley @ Sage Gateshead - April 1

Miles Mosley (Bass/vocals); Dontae Winslow (trumpet); Ryan Porter (trombone); Cameron Graves (keys); Tony Austin (drums).
(Review by Steve T).
Hot-footed it from Dundee via North Bitchburn to get to this and I'm sticking to my guns that it was the real coup of the festival. When Kamasi's in Sage One and Kendrick, Lotus and Thundercat are at Metro Radio Arena, we'll be saying we saw the bass player at Northern Rock Foundation.
I half expected to see faces from a former life, George Clintons P Funk Mob being the nearest comparison I can make, though Kamasi cites Earth Wind and Fire as the major funk influence. The Jazz content is pretty much comparable for each.
I've been doing this long enough and often enough to know that expectations can lead to pleasant surprises but also disappointment and I attended this knowing it might not be all I hoped for.
It wasn't the breakthrough of my highest expectations but was a funky, fine way to finish off a Saturday night. The songs were good if unremarkable, mostly from his new album and it was great to be able to buy the CD, though some people seemed to know all the words to all the songs already, and why were they £15 when the people collecting the money are the same people who claim nobody wants them anymore?
The musicianship was strong throughout the small band of drums, piano and just two horns and, significantly, they were tight, as you'd expect from a band of brothers, figuratively speaking. I was stood in front of one of the amps which was comfortable when he wasn't playing his upright, loud when he was and exploded when he attacked it with his bow, often through a cry-baby, and I can't wait to hear how that sounds on the album.
The pianist played the funkiest acoustic piano I've ever heard and I found myself looking for a clavinet player, and the drummer may not have been the best in the world, as one audience member suggested and Miles agreed, but it's quite possible he's been dipped in the Tyne.
The audience included many who appeared to arrive specially, or were a hangover from GoGo etc,. and responded to calls of West Coast with the response Get Down, though only tentatively put the words into action, which may have been a blessing.
Tyneside may not have moved as much as the faithful may have liked, but I still think a fusion with hip hop is most likely to be the next big thing in Jazz, which will be great for young people to have something of their own. Three CDs of Kamasi’s Epic was probably too soon, Glasper going R+B a mistake, and Thundercat pulling in a famous popstar to gain radio airplay, not the way we'd like things to go. 
With Europe going for an even freer approach and Britain edging toward a smooth, prog, Jazz, funk, rock revival, based on the original American model before a visionary Yorkshireman spotted the error of their ways, the West Coast Get Down need to get on with it.
Steve T

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