Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18018 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 339 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (May 7).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Thu 15: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: The Greatest in Jazz - Guitarists.
Thu 15: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 15: New Ways of Moving in the Counterworlds @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). John Garner & John Pope.

Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Sophie Speed with the Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ Longframlington Memorial Hall. 7:00pm (doors). Tickets: £12.00. from 01665 570984.
Fri 16: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £10.00.
Fri 16: Peter Donegan & Anthony Donegan @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. ‘Lonnie Donegan - The Stories’.

Sat 17: Teresa Watson Band @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sat 17: The Society Quartet @ Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Tel: 0191 500 9494. £26.00 (inc. two course meal). Line-up: Jason Holcomb, Hannah Taylor, Alix Shepherd & Abbie Finn.
Sat 17: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 17: Archie Brown & the Young Bucks @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues, Americana etc.
Sat 17: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Rockabilly, Western swing etc.

Sun 18: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 12 noon-2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 18: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 18: Ruth Lambert & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 18: Steve Summers Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 19: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 19: Lewis Watson Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 20: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.
Tue 20: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth NE61 1ND. 8:00pm.

Wed 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 21: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 21: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. 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

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Tomasz Stanko Quartet and Partikel, EFG London Jazz Festival, Cadogan Hall, November 10.

(Review by Mike Collins)
It was over an hour before Tomasz Stanko (trumpet) reached for the mic, his introduction of the band barely audible over the cheers and whoops echoing round Cadogan Hall.  There had been musical announcements as Stanko let fly a conversational flurry of chromaticism, or David Virelles (piano) sketched a few dark chords to direct the band towards the next episode.  This was a remarkable, fluid performance, steadily intensifying over the course of the long set of contrasting moods and textures.
Stanko’s modus operandi is atmospheric and episodic acoustic jazz that encompasses hypnotically grooving, loose-limbed pieces built around fragmentary hooks; languid, deceptively simple melodies with expansive and rich harmony; jagged flurries of notes over racing meters. The accompanying trio, completed by Reuben Rogers on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums explored every nuance and possibility.
They crept in over Rogers’ steady, walking line and accumulated an unstoppable momentum to open the set. A scattering of rhapsodic chords from the piano ushered in a typical wispy, plaintive melody from the trumpet. There was a palpable thickening of the atmosphere as the silence between notes was allowed to swell. Virelles allowed the faintest of repeated notes to chime and the trumpet sighed. Then Cleaver started an urgent shuffling groove, Rogers’ bass locked in, Stanko assayed a few sliding dance steps before spooling out another Stank-ish ditty and standing back having lit the touchpaper.  
Virelles produced the first of several volcanic solos. Crystalline phrases were repeated, repeated again, turned upside down with percussive counterpoint from his left hand before a pummelling battery of rhythms doubled with an eruption from Cleaver who’d been shadowing every move. Even Reuben Rogers was whooping from behind the bass. Stanko’s contributions were invariably brief, as much a conductor and on the spot orchestrator as frontman, his fragile sound sketching out the territory whether with squalls of notes or filigrees of melody. Cleaver was an immense presence whether filling the canvas with skittering shimmers of texture from the cymbals or building the tumult with boiling rhythms.  
The American trio has brought an extra dimension to Stanko’s music, this set was drawn from the most recent release December Avenue  and the roars for more recognised we’d witnessed something special.
Partikel played a short opening set offering a brief gust of a distinctive blend of striking melody, artfully shifting harmony and infectious grooves with often surprising turns. Guitarist Ant Law joined the regular trio of Duncan Eagles (sax); Max Luthert (bass) and Eric Ford (drums).  
Their well-received set will have whetted plenty of appetites.
Mike.

No comments :

Blog Archive