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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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly.
Thu 23: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Obituaries 2024.
Thu 23: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 23: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 24: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ Lindisfarne Social Club, Wallsend. 9:00pm. Admission: TBC. Jazz, blues , jump jive, rock ‘n’ roll.

Sat 25: Boys of Brass @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 25: New '58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson's Wharf, Hartlepool. 6:30pm (doors). Free. A Burns' Night event. Jazz, swing, funk, soul, blues etc.
Sat 25: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Parish Hall, St Barnabas’ Church, Rowlands Gill. 7:30pm. £10.00. BYOB (tea & coffee available), raffle. Proceeds to St Barnabas’ Church. Performance feat. Shayo (vocals).
Sat 25: Jack & Jay’s Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues.

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

Sunday, August 06, 2017

Francis Tulip Quartet: Monk’s Mood @ The Globe - August 5

Francis Tulip (guitar), Joel Brown (piano), Michael Dunlop (bass) & Matthew MacKellar (drums)
(Review by Russell/photos courtesy of Steve T)
Along the road at Times Square (NCL not NYC) the Manic Street Preachers pitched a tent. Here at the Globe, the Jazz Co-op was having a busy old time. Day one of a two-day weekend workshop at the Railway Street premises utilised the ground floor bar and first-floor music room. As participants departed at the end of an informative first day, in walked a Tulip.
The Francis Tulip Quartet walked in…set-up, tune-up, run through, ready to go. The FTQ departed, as does any self-respecting band, in search of that pre-gig essential, fast food. Meanwhile, the FTQ fan club arrived. The hordes arrived just in time (there’s a tune in there somewhere) to see the last Red Kite depart for the sanctuary of Derwent Valley. Yes, Wylam Brewery’s ever-popular beer was no more. An Angel (another in Wylam’s portfolio) came to the rescue. Front row seats bagged (set at a distance from the stage), lights dimmed, the Globe was in a Monk’s Mood.
In Walked Bud (with Francis, Joel, Michael and Matt) for starters, Let’s Call This and its swing-time feel and Michael Dunlop’s walking bass line, this was great stuff! Principal soloists, at least initially, Francis Tulip, guitar, and Joel Brown, piano, laid-down amazing solos which drew huge applause – ‘yeah!’, ‘whoo!’ and the like. Such was the level of applause that Francis Tulip’s name checks were largely inaudible. But hey, the audience knew who they were! Round Midnight took it down before a first drum feature for Matt MacKellar on Jackie-ing. MM’s intro developed into a tune-long master class with the boys in the band punctuating as and when. Most definitely an ‘I was there’ moment.

Blue Monk with MacKellar’s restrained Blakey-like drive, Michael Dunlop’s assured ‘in-the-pocket’ time, Tulip and Brown in a real Thelonius mood, followed by a Monk set-closer, Green Chimneys. A first set covering TS Monk’s library spanning the Blue Note, Prestige and Riverside years, notes scribbled in pad read ‘amazing!’. And so it was.

The bar was busy. Another Angel, thank you. As the second set began the first of the tent dwellers in Times Square hurried past the Globe, their gig done. One or two stopped momentarily, peering through the window, curious, no doubt wondering who was performing at this crowded Jazz Co-op gig. Francis Tulip soared 500 Hundred Miles High with another ‘beyond-his-years’ solo. Think just how good FT will be when he learns how to play! Seriously, 500 gigs later, who knows what Tulip will be capable of? A Latin feel to I’ll Remember April, Wayne Shorter’s Beauty and the Beast with bassist Dunlop utilising a couple of pedals, the FTQ demonstrated it’s more than a Monk machine. Stella by Starlight, Footprints with pianist Joel Brown making his mark, closely followed by Tulip’s stratospheric post-bop guitar playing, this debut gig by the Francis Tulip Quartet exceeded every expectation and more. To close, Tulip announced Ray Noble’s Cherokee, suggesting they would play it at a lick. Good! exclaimed your correspondent. And so they did with Matt MacKellar’s hi-hat working overtime and Joel Brown almost running out of fingers! More! More! Let’s go out on Afro Blue. Gig of the Year? It’s a contender.                          

Russell.

1 comment :

Steve T said...

If you missed it, or want to do it all again, they're playing at Tutsters bar in Bishop Auckland on thurday 10th - that's this thurday.
They're under the name The Tulip Connection but it's the same band, still playing Jazz, but perhaps a tad rockier at times.

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