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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

17805 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 126 of them this year alone and, so far, 51 this month (Feb.16).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones - 1975.
Thu 20: Renegade Brass Band @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 20: Orange Claw Hammer + Peony @ The Globe, Newcastle.7:30pm. Orange Claw Hammer play Captain Beefheart.
Thu 20: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Featuring special guest Zoë Gilby.

Fri 21: JazzMain @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. TBC.
Fri 21: Emma Rawicz w. Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30pm-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 22: Mississippi MacDonald @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. Blues.
Sat 22: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Old Cinema Laundrette, Durham. 7:45pm. £16.50. SOLD OUT!
Sat 22: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sun 23: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 23: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Mark Williams Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 23: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 23: Mississippi MacDonald @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. Blues.
Sun 23: Mu Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 23: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 24: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 24: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

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, July 17, 2017

Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert: Jambone & Quay Voices with Zoë Gilby, Matt Anderson & Colette Serrechia @ Sage Gateshead - July 16

(Review by Russell)
This Young Musicians’ Programme concert, the second of two performances, presented the music of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts in Sage One, Sage Gateshead’s magnificent, 1700 seats, state of the art concert hall. The project had been long in the making with frequent rehearsals over many months. A successful first performance took place on Saturday afternoon at Ushaw, Durham (photo by Kate Edis), in the splendour of the former seminary’s chapel, and this Sunday evening concert concluded a weekend of music making under the aegis of the Young Musicians’ Programme (YMP).
Paul Edis and Matt Beckingham tutored respectively Jambone and Quay Voices (Jambone is Sage Gateshead’s youth jazz orchestra, Quay Voices the youth choir) throughout the 2016-17 academic year, culminating in this weekend of memorable public performances. Featured guests worked with Edis and Beckingham throughout the year and their participation in the project should, perhaps, be viewed as a contribution of equal, rather than superior, value to orchestra and choir.
Dr Edis conducted the assembly with Beckingham taking a seat in the auditorium alongside a Sage Gateshead audience of family, friends, supporters and music lovers. This concert of Ellington’s late career work was the John Høybye/Peder Pedersen version dating from the 1990s. The twenty-five strong choir, dressed in black, assembled behind the seventeen piece jazz orchestra, with vocalist Zoë Gilby taking a seat to the right of pianist Phillip Grobe, and saxophonist Matt Anderson taking his place in the reeds’ section flanked by Nicholas Caughey and Ella Talbot. Praise God began the one-hour performance featuring the collective power of Jambone and Quay Voices. The acoustics in Sage One are renowned the world over and it is on an occasion such as this that the listener is able to appreciate that the cost of Norman Foster’s iconic building was, and is, money well spent.
Local superstar, Ms Zoë Gilby, rose to sing her first part; Heaven heard Gilby projecting effortlessly, the choir – none of whom were on a mic – could similarly be heard without difficulty.

Ellington’s Freedom suite comprising of seven parts introduced Matt Anderson. The Leeds College of Music graduate is primarily known as a tenor saxophonist but on this occasion, he played alto as much as tenor. Jimmy Hamilton or Russell Procope or Paul Gonsalves, Anderson played brilliantly under the baton of Edis. Gilby sang and Gilby gave the recitation Freedom is a word. In Sage One on the night, or at Ushaw the previous day, was there a member of the audience who attended one of the original Ellington concert performances?

Several of Jambone’s musicians are busy gigging musicians. No fewer than six of them played at Matt MacKellar’s jazz party on Thursday evening of last week and here they were taking on Duke Ellington! Trumpeters James Metcalf and Ben Lawrence were Cat Anderson and Cootie Williams. Or was it the other way round? Which ever, James and Ben met the challenge head on; exposed trumpet parts are surely trepidatious for the more experienced performer, yet the Jamboners gave it their best shot and hit the bullseye! Pianist Paul Edis must have been especially proud of Phillip Grobe’s mature performance at the Steinway grand. And the engine room boys…Matthew Downey playing guitar (a guitarist who gets the volume levels right!), Alex Shipsey, as steady a bass player as you’ll find, and the pocket dynamo himself, drummer Dylan Thompson, reading the dots, an eye on conductor Edis, and, seemingly, time to enjoy the whole thing. When your correspondent forms his first jazz combo DT will be ‘first call’ for the drum chair!

To complete this performance of Ellington’s Sacred Concert music Stockton on Tees-born Colette Serrechia joined Jambone and Quay Voices to contribute tap dance routines. A tap board set up at the front of the stage enabled all to watch Serrechia as she became another voice in the ensemble. David danced before the Lord and the closing section Praise God and Dance – Finale featured the terpsichorean talents of Serrechia, soaring Quay Voices and a cookin’ Jambone. The evening had been quite an occasion.      
Russell                                            
Zoë Gilby (vocals), Matt Anderson (alto & tenor saxophones), Colette Serrechia (tap dance)
Jambone: director: Paul Edis; saxophone: Nicholas Caughey, Ryan De Silva, Haaruun Miller, Ella Talbot; flute: Megan Robinson, Imogen Davies-Pugh; trumpet: James Metcalf, Ben Lawrence, Lucien Guest, Callum Mellis; trombone: Darcy Whyatt, Kate Garnett, Fabio Sousa; piano: Phillip Grobe; guitar: Matthew Downey; bass: Alex Shipsey; drums Dylan Thompson
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Quay Voices: director: Matt Beckingham; Jess Batey, Matthew Balme, Lindsay Booth, Zoé Buckthrop, Lucy Che, Peter Chisholm, Matthew Coe, Jasmine Colgan, Seth Collin, Esme Collin, Daniel Filipe, Charlotte Galloway, Laura Hewitson, Amy Langdown, Alistair McCubbin, Emily McDermott, James Petherick, Sarah Petherick, Faye Robinson, Elise Shields, Saffron Sims-Brydon, Frances Sutton, Rosa Thomas, Callum Ward, Jake Watson

1 comment :

Steve T said...

Despite being a serious Duke man, I've never bothered with his sacred concerts, presumably for the same reason that, despite being the most thorough of thorough soul fans, I've barely touched upon gospel.
Nevertheless, I can't for the life of me think why it was about a quarter to a third full, and why anybody would not go to watch this in a splendid chapel in a splendid building just outside Durham, and I include family, friends and acquaintances in that.
As I keep saying, we accept the post-truth, fake news and alternative facts of the media and educators, more interested in Brian Wilson than Duke Ellington, at our peril.
It was Jambone at their best, and special mentions concurred for trumpeters James and Ben: Matt, Zoe, Quay Voices and, as a conductor sceptic, Lord Paul; and the tap dancing was a masterstroke.

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