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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

18043 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 364 of them this year alone and, so far, 42 this month (May 15).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

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: Bellavana @ Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30-10:00pm. Free. A Late Shows event.
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). b Wed 21: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 22: Nuevo Castillo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £5.00.
Thu 22: Anna Reay & Deon Krishnan @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:30-9:15pm. Free.
Thu 22: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 23: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. ‘Celebrating Oscar’.
Fri 23: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 23: Anna Reay & Deon Krishnan @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Joe Steels Group @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. + £1.55. bf. A Northumberland Jazz Festival fringe event.
Fri 23: Spilt Milk @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 23: Gaz Hughes Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm.
Fri 23: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm. £19.00.; £17.00. ‘Time After Time’.

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, December 03, 2017

Baby it’s Cold INside! Alan Barnes – Jazz Christmas Carol @ Ushaw College, Fri. Dec 1

Alan Barnes (sax, clarinet and bass clarinet); Bruce Adams (trumpet); Mark Nightingale (trombone); Robert Fowler (saxes and clarinet); Karen Sharp (saxes and clarinet); David Newton (piano); Simon Thorpe (bass); Clark Tracey (drums).
(Review by Jerry)
Alan Barnes entered, resplendent with lighted candlestick, nightcap, nightshirt (looking well slept-in) and socks and slippers presumably loaned by Nora Batty! Resplendent is perhaps the wrong word but it certainly was an entrance!
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, with Paul Edis depping on piano for David Newton (stuck in traffic), set the mood and gave hints of the musical riches to come. As the applause was dying down, the pianist arrived –“a visitation from the ghost of gigs past”, according to the band-leader!

Being unfamiliar with this suite of music (I was abroad when it came to Ushaw last year) I was uncertain how the jazz would be tied into the carefully selected and dramatically read extracts from Dickens: the next few tunes set the pattern. After The Start of It we had (my favourite Christmas saying) Bah Humbug, on which Scrooge was “voiced” by some brilliant baritone sax from Karen Sharp. Marley’s Ghost ascending the stairs was represented by Clark Tracey’s drumming and a suitably spooky crescendo of sound. Marley’s attire – tights, boots, tassels and chains – drew a typical interjection from our narrator: “sounds like he’d been to Ann Summers”!
And that was the pattern – a mix of brilliant music, Dickens and one-liners from Alan Barnes who, should anyone ever steal his reeds, could make a living doing stand-up!
After A Portrait of Belle the audience were thanked for getting into the spirit of things by looking parched with the cold (Ushaw had heating problems) and later were promised a Christmas medley to include Baby it’s Cold Inside! The description of The Ghost of Christmas Present was prefaced with a warning to any vegetarians or vegans in the audience that Dickens’s prose might include references to meat….and fish….and fowl. Worse appeared to be coming as Barnes threatened to lift his night-shirt when the ghost revealed the starving children, Want and Ignorance! “That’s why they charge more for the front-row seats!” Fortunately, we were spared that and the music resumed. The apparition’s music was delightfully Caribbean in tone (yet another brilliant variation in style and mood within this suite)  a Rastafarian Jolly Green Giant until piercing trumpet (Scrooge) led up to a reading about Tiny Tim.
The music for The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come featured the rarely used bass clarinet, described by its owner as a “rejected E-pipe”! Blown into at face level, the notes, like honeyed Guinness, emerged round about Nora Batty’s stockings and lent an impressively sombre tone for us to visualise the demise of Tim and the unattended funeral of Scrooge himself. Then, in a total mood-switch, we had The End of It (the reformed Scrooge capering) followed by the closing number, God Bless Us Everyone.
We never did get Baby It’s Cold Inside, but the Christmas mood was reinforced instead by a reading of one of my favourite poems – The Oxen, by Thomas Hardy – and three seasonal favourites: Tormé’s Christmas Song, featuring Mark Nightingale’s trombone, a jazz version of We Three Kings and (somehow via Blue Monk) Santa Claus is Coming to Town Cue massive applause!
By my own admission, I am no expert, but I would say this has to rank among the best live music (ANY GENRE) I have ever seen and heard!
Jerry

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