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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

Friday, September 15, 2017

The Safe Sextet with Debra Milne @ The Globe September 14

Debra Milne (vocals); Don Forbes (trumpet); John Rowland (tenor sax); Steve Summers (various saxes); Joel Brown (piano); Paul Grainger (bass); Mark Robertson (drums)
(Review by Ann Alex)
A stonkingly good night of jazz, which could even be an ‘I was there’ occasion for at least 2 reasons:-
Joel Brown, depping for Alan Law, gave a stunning performance on the keys, which made me wonder if he’s lying about his age. His lively, inventive, performance matched that of the other musicians, who must surely be 30 years (ahem!) or so his senior. And we witnessed the first performance of a new tune in the making, as Don gave out scores which were the basis of a tune which played out initially as a slow steady trumpet, with each instrument gradually picking it up and culminating with a slow bass solo. I think Don said it was called Silence and it was somehow connected with John Cage, but Don was giving lots of entertaining chat anyway.
It was the first time that Debra [Milne] had sung with this band and she did well with some very difficult material, even singing her own lyrics (Relax) to the slinky tune Killer Joe. Debra has talent as a lyricist and it will be good to hear more of her writing in the future. But all this was in the second set, I’m ahead of myself. The band opened with Wayne Shorter’s One by One, a delightfully boppy, jagged number, followed by a piece rarely played Israel, and the soloists well under way, horns playing as if they were in love with the tune, trumpet in charge (sort of) and the piano soon showing what it could do. Then a number which was written by a tenor player with the Basie band, didn’t catch the name, but it involved a dual between drums and trumpet, after Don stood up to call the drums into extra action – such fun. Enter Debra to sing Jumping With Symphony Sid (Lester Young) and Bluesology. Jumping had a vocalese written by the great Georgie Fame and both songs were Don’s arrangements. Then came Coltrane’s Equinox (I’d kill to get the chance to sing this song with a band), with a combined solo from piano, bass and drums.

Other second set numbers included Hocus Pocus, after which Don told us about how American trumpet player Lee Morgan had been shot dead by an ex girlfriend during a gig, so the chat was historically informative, then a Horace Silver composition with a superb solo from Joel. So What included lyrics, something about Miles Davis leaving the stage, and Four had Debra evolving into some scat. The never-played-before-Don Forbes original was followed by Scotch And Water, fast solos, Debra scatting 4’s with the tenor, a bass solo with brief comments from the piano, and a final statement from the trumpet, which seemed like the right ending to a great night of beboppy jazz.

Next week at the Globe promises to be memorable. If you fancy yourself as a song writer, a course for this begins on Monday at 7pm. If you like folk music as well as jazz, there’s an outstanding new band on Friday, Pons Aelius, which includes highland pipes, bass and rhythm from bodhran and cymbals, exciting stuff. Then this Sunday (Sept. 17) at noon, you can hear vintage jazz, how it all began, with Emily Bacon’s Good Time Gang, and you can have food with the music, gumbo and jambalaya.
I think I’ll move my bed into the Globe for the next week!
Ann Alex  

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