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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17777 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 98 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Feb.8).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Tue 11: Steve Summers Quintet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.

Wed 12: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 12: Jam session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 12: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 12: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 13: Student Performances @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 4:00pm. Free. Inc. Olly Styles (tenor sax).
Thu 13: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: Artist Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Hannabiell & Midnight Blue.
Thu 13: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.

Fri 14: John Rowland Trio @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 12:30-1:30pm. £5.00. at the door. New second Friday in the month concert series.
Fri 14: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 14: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 14: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 14: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 14: Archipelago + Anna Tempest @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £8.00.
Fri 14: Paul Jones & Dave Kelly @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. Rhythm & blues.
Fri 14: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm.
Fri 14: Jazz Sabbath @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 15: Elkie Brooks @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘The Long Farewell Tour’.
Sat 15: Milne Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: BBC Introducing NE X MOBO Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Jambone, Knats, Rivkala, SwanNek.
Sun 16: The Shayo Experience @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 16: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 16: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

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

Monday, June 26, 2017

Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band @ Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester - June 25

(Review by Russell).
They flew 6000 miles to play two concerts. A capacity audience at this first concert greeted this Los Angeles supergroup with wild applause, all before a note was played. The Wigan International Jazz Festival sought the services of this greatest of big bands for some fifteen years and now, finally, we were about to hear the band live, in concert. Festival Director Ian Darrington introduced the band in simple fashion; Welcome the best big band on the planet.
Cameras flashed as the Big Phat Band strolled onto the stage, the best big band on the planet. MD Gordon Goodwin acknowledged an ecstatic audience as the band’s British premiere began right on time. The eighteen-piece Big Phat Band, comprising of Los Angeles’ A-list film and recording studio session musicians, exuded a casual air, their collective CV simply amazing. Boy, this lot could play!
The ensemble cookin’, the first of a raft of stellar soloists, sauntered to the front of the stage. Tenor saxophonist Brian Scanlon blew into a mic, and blew and blew. This elicited the first of innumerable bursts of applause. Fellow tenor man Kevin Garren followed…anything you can do. Sal Lozano – a Hollywood name, for sure! – tore it up on alto and soprano, and later would feature on a legendary number playing clarinet. Tower of Power energy, a dancing samba, a swinging rhythm section, the Big Phat Band reigns supreme. Goodwin introduced several new numbers, standing in front of the band, moving to a Yamaha grand, then a Yamaha Motif XS8, then out front once more. 

Trombones often take a back seat, not with this band! MD Goodwin brought all four ’bone man out front – Andy Martin, Charlie Morillas, Francisco Torres and bass trombone Craig Gosnell – to joust in a rapid-fire slide exchange. Up top, the trumpet section was having a ball. Goodwin teased the audience: Okay Wayne Bergeron, right? No! Bergeron was nowhere to be seen. Depping for the legendary trumpet ace (‘depping’ is an inadequate term!) on these British dates was recent Royal Academy graduate,  all of twenty-three years of age, Louis Dowdeswell. MD Goodwin could not have been more effusive in praising Dowdeswell for taking on the lead trumpet role, and, let it be known, nailing it. The RNCM audience showed its appreciation, the applause deafening.

Sunset and Vine…evocative isn’t it? Well, Goodwin isn’t enamoured of this particular Los Angeles’ interstate. He’s written a new tune and called it…Sunset and Vine. For the listener, another superb big band chart. The rhythm section, a section to die for, indeed all sections, were all over it. Jamey Tate, reading the parts, smiling, is what you could call a ‘proper’ drummer. One imagines the scene out in LA boasts such talents in numbers. Well, it was a privilege to hear this particular talent. Joey DeLeon, the other half of the percussion unit, is sure to be in demand out on the West Coast. Joey and Jamey were simply outstanding. A new favourite bass player (as of yesterday!) is Kevin Axt. A bass guitarist of taste and facility, equally adept as a double bass player.

Rhapsody in Blue. An old warhorse to some, to Gordon Goodwin a masterpiece, in his opinion, Mr George Gershwin the greatest composer of them all. Sal Lozano’s clarinet soared into the blue sky over LA/Manchester. Goodwin’s interpretation of this timeless composition engendered vociferous applause. The audience couldn’t be more animated, could it?

Hunting Wabbits. Never in a million years did your reviewer think this number would be heard live, right here in our own backyard. June 25, 2017, it happened. The Royal Northern College of Music’s auditorium was packed to the rafters, tonight’s (Monday 26) second performance will, no doubt, be equally thrilling. Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band had one last tune for us. Goodwin suggested he and the band knew one more tune. The Jazz Police. Can you believe it,

 The Jazz Police? Live, right here, on our doorstep! Exhilarating, and, memorably, guitarist Andrew Synowiec tearing it up.  Please note, this evening’s concert sold out several months ago. If you want to catch the band live, next stop Los Angeles. So, this RNCM gig was a good ’un? Aye, not bad, ‘canny good’, as we say here in the north east of England, the land of Bebop Spoken Here.              
Russell.
Gordon Goodwin (MD, piano & tenor sax), Louis Dowdeswell, Bob Summers, Dan Savant, Willie Murillo (trumpets); Brain Scanlon (tenor sax & flute), Jeff Driskill (tenor sax & flute), Sal Lozano (alto sax, soprano sax, flute & clarinet), Kevin Garren (tenor sax & flute), Jay Mason (baritone sax, bass clarinet & flute); Andy Martin, Charlie Morillas, Francisco Torres, Craig Gosnell, (trombones); Andrew Synowiec (guitar); Kevin Axt (double bass & bass guitar); Jamey Tate (drums); Joey DeLeon (percussion)

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