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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

Tue 21: ???

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: 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

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Mo Scott – She’s Our Pride and Joy @ The Jazz Café - Dec 15

Mo Scott (vocals), Dave Dryden (guitar), Neil Harland (bass) & Paul Smith (drums)
(Review by Russell) 
Christmas party time at the Jazz Café! The promise of ‘free festive nibbles’ attracted the interest of Bebop Spoken Here, and, if our luck was in, there was the prospect of pulling a cracker. The sweet little angel atop the Christmas tree, Mo Scott, assembled her A-Team line-up, and, without fanfare, ripped into T-Bone Shuffle and Hound Dog.
Tyneside’s Empress of the Blues and her men in black played a blinder from the off; guitarist Dave Dryden is one hell of a musician. It struck your reviewer that Scott doesn’t countenance working on a gig with other than the very best of blues guitarists. Dryden, Gary Dunn, and for many years, Rod Sinclair, to name but three, all top drawer. Bassist Neil Harland is a busy working musician, and, as and when he’s available, Mo readily secures his services. Teesside-based drummer Paul Smith is equally busy and his presence in the engine room ensured a memorable night of rhythm and blues, Tex-Mex and more was in store.
Scott sang Ry Cooder’s Never Make Your Move to Soon with Dryden playing his powder-blue Strat (one of three guitars the man from Stokesley had with him on the night), there would be more from Ryland Peter Cooder later. Much tittering at the

mention of Little Willie John, but full attention when Mo got the Fever…the man who had great success with Fever and Need Your Love So Bad could call himself whatever he damn-well liked! More Tex-Mex Ry Cooder (Across the Borderline), then SRV. Dave Dryden’s take on Stevie Ray Vaughan (and later Hendrix) is quite an experience. Striking out on Cold Shot with SRV’s trademark Texas shuffle this alone was worth the price of admission. The Mo Scott Christmas party wouldn’t be complete without a Muddy Waters’ number, so, we got Blow Wind Blow.

What followed was the blues highlight of the year. Red House, for ever associated with J. Hendrix, featured Dryden’s brilliant guitar playing and Mo’s frenzied Come on! exaltation. Hendrix at his best (the absence of psychedelia), Dryden a master musician. Long before the end of the one hour first set they were up partying dancing to Mo Scott’s fast-paced selection of tunes, Knock on Wood and many other dance floor fillers keeping them on their feet.

An interval festive feast, a raffle (!), and an unexpected bonus downstairs as Julija Jacenaite sang a few tunes, simply for her own satisfaction, once more accompanied by pianist Alan Law (a short review of their earlier set is appended to this posting).

Mo loves Ray Charles so Let the Good Times Roll kept the party going as the second set got under way. The Neville Brothers, Bonnie Raitt (River of Tears), then more SRV. Pride and Joy, oh yes! A truly magnificent version of Vaughan’s signature tune. Mo Scott – she’s our pride and joy. Vocalist, bandleader, raffle meister, Scott took a breather as the boys launched into an ostensibly unusual, if not incongruous, choice of material. Billy Cobham’s high-energy jazz-fusion workout Red Baron hit new heights of virtuosity; Dryden shredding with taste (an oxymoron?), Harland, a towering funking presence, Smith’s killing snap on the snare.

Middle period Stones (Miss You), King Floyd (that’s King, not Pink), All Along the Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix’s version) produced more brilliant guitar playing from Dryden, Mo was clearly enjoying it all as she called out to Sonny Boy, Help Me. It was fast approaching midnight but the audience wasn’t going to let Mo go without an encore. The Empress of the Blues took it home on Route 66.

Julija Jacenaite (vocals) & Alan Law (piano)

Earlier in the evening in the Jazz Café’s downstairs bar Lithuanian-born, Tyneside-resident vocalist Julija Jacenaite selected a few standards to sing accompanied at the piano by Alan Law. Misty with Jacenaite wringing out every last drop of emotion, a rollercoaster Love Me or Leave Me, a lengthy, note-filled take on One Note Samba, then due to a slightly late start to their set, Jacenaite and Alan Law concluded matters with JJ’s ever-expressive rendition of Angel Eyes.

During the interval of Mo Scott’s gig a trip to the downstairs bar found Jacenaite and Law playing to a couple of barflies. Two numbers were heard during the interval; first, All of Me then an interesting arrangement of Mood Indigo.                  
Russell

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