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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

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.
Mon 27: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. 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.

Fri 31: Alan Barnes Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 12 noon-2:00pm (two sets). £12.00. admission (card or cash at the door). Barnes (alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet); Alan Law (piano); Mick Shoulder (double bass); Tim Johnston (drums). Note change of venue, no longer at Mrs M’s as advertised, the concert will be in the Old Library (Bishop Auckland Jazz’s regular venue). Important! It’s a ‘BYOB’ arrangement - ie bring your own booze (and/or tea, coffee, soft drinks).
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Café Orkestar @ Café Under the Spire, Gateshead. 6:00pm. ‘Klezmer, Gypsy Jazz, Balkan & More!’.
Fri 31: Nothing in Rambling @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £10.00. + bf. Country blues duo.
Fri 31 Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Wylam Institute. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £15.00. + £1.50. bf.
Fri 31: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. £10.00 + bf. Jazz, blues , jump jive, rock ‘n’ roll.
Fri 31: Alan Barnes Quartet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00 Barnes (alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet); Alan Law (piano); Mick Shoulder (double bass); Tim Johnston (drums).
Fri 31: SwanNek + Rivkala @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 8:00pm. SwanNek’s new single launch gig. Pilgrim, formerly Hoochie Coochie.

February 2025

Sat 01: Alan Barnes & John Hallam with the Tom Kincaid Trio @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - Cy Coleman’s Witchcraft. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Darling Dollies @ St George’s Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Vocal trio.
Sat 01: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 01: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 01: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Western swing etc.

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

Friday, August 11, 2017

Zoe Gilby & Andy Champion @ The Jazz Cafe - August 4

Zoe Gilby (vocals) & Andy Champion (double bass).
(Review by JC/Photos  from archives courtesy of Mike Tilley .)
I very rarely come into the centre of Newcastle at weekends except to go to a jazz gig, usually at the Jazz Cafe, as it is often a slightly alarming experience. In the old days jazz used be wild music associated with illicit substances and unbridled sexual licence and decent law abiding citizens would not be associated with it. Now it's the other way round with the Jazz Cafe being a haven of tranquillity and sensible shoes with the drugs and sex mostly just in the songs, while outside in the city centre the streets around are like something out of one of Fellini's films. Noisy gangs of young men and equally voluble groups of young women fill the pavements and the roads. No children or families, of course, or anyone over 30 - except for a solitary jazz fan in appropriate footwear heading swiftly for Pink Lane.
However, that doesn't mean that the music in the Cafe is not edgy and passionate - it is - and the Gilby-Champion duo were in great form. I've always been a big fan of this duo format because of the instinctive interplay between the two performers and the opportunity it gives Zoe Gilby to display her vocal improvisational skills and subtle lyrical interpretations of well-chosen songs and Andy Champion to foreground all the possibilities of his double bass.
I arrived a little after the first set began and the duo were well into Nice Work If You Can Get It. with Andy Champion in full flow on his bass solo. As I was enjoying the music I wasn't really keeping a list of the order of the songs but some of the ones that stood out were the Monk tunes, Straight, No Chaser, imbibed at a breakneck pace and Well, You Needn't sung with all the sharp, staccato twists and turns of Monk's piano-playing.
As well as including classic jazz songs, their repertoire has always been diverse and quirky picking out tracks that have something special about them by modern songwriters - Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Pink Floyd and more. Tonight it was particularly sinister versions of Nick Cave's Red Right Hand and Tom Waits Way Down in the Hole with the close interplay of voice and bass creating an edgy atmosphere. Maybe a disguised Donald Trump was in the audience as he pinched a quote from the Waits' song in his threats to North Korea a few days later 'He's got the fire and fury/at his command'. Kate Bush's mysterious Kashka from Baghdad, who seems to be having a good time behind closed doors, got the full range of Gilby's vocal ability and a beautiful rendition of Weaver of Dreams changed the pace. The duo's set included two new additions to the repertoire, both connected to the great but enigmatic singer, Nick Drake, who died at the early age of 26. The first was John Martyn's Solid Air, a song written for Drake, which seems to capture his troubled life. They finished with Drake's own Riverman and both Gilby and Champion gave it an intense treatment with Gilby really drawing out the emotion of the lyrics. This rounded off a fantastic gig with both performers demonstrating their dexterous versatility with a great selection of songs, changing tempo and tone, improvising and embellishing at will. All those lucky people who have tickets for their performance at Ilkley Jazz Festival are in for a treat!
Then it was  back out onto the streets, the whole scene looking even more surreal than before. A group of women emerged from a bar wearing pink bunny ears and one was carrying a life-size inflatable doll - was that her prize or her punishment? I went quickly on....
JC

1 comment :

Pam Young (on F/b) said...

Fabulous gig by two top drawer musicians wonderful material

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