BABMUS @ The Jazz Café - Jan 25

Bearpark: Tom Bearpark (Hammond organ); Jamie Jingles (guitar); Stephen Hall (bass) & Adam Watson (drums)

(Review by Russell)

Tom Bearpark knew it, he said he wasn’t surprised. Late January is a difficult time of year to ask people to come out and support live music. Bandleader Bearpark thanked those who turned out, and, with his BABMus colleagues ready to go, fired-up the Hammond.

The Jazz Café’s upstairs room reverberated to the sound of Bearpark’s SK2. We’ve heard him at the Pink Lane upright, we’ve heard him at the house Nord, tonight, Bearpark would tussle with the big beast. The monthly BABMUS session is a platform for students on Sage Gateshead’s BA and BMus music degree courses to escape the white wall rehearsal room and play a gig in front of the paying public. Tom Bearpark isn’t Jimmy – McGriff or Smith, more like a Bearpark with a manic, at times, prog rock sound. Whatever the tune, it got the Bearpark treatment. His bandmates, guitarist Jamie Jingles (Jingles aka…that would be telling!), the assured bassist Stephen Hall and drummer Adam Watson, were up for the challenge responding to Bearpark’s signals – hand or eye – when a change in tempo was required or to return to the head.

Numbers ranged from an accomplished Tom Bearpark composition titled Sergeant Bird to a Gothic take on My Favorite Things, to, at times, a demented version of In a Sentimental Mood (if ever the musicians’ jokey alternative title applied – In a Semi-Mental Mood – this was the occasion!). Jamie Jingles shared solo spots with Bearpark. Interestingly, Jamie J doesn’t use a pick, and he certainly has a distinctive sound playing his Telecaster. The Hammond lends itself to a bossa and Bearpark duly dipped into the bag marked ‘Bossa.’ The evening’s closing number featured Adam Watson on Take Five. The 5/4 to 7/8 time signatures didn’t inhibit our drummer, this was his opportunity to let us hear what he could do, and he did just that.

Bearpark is a student band, it’s come on leaps and bounds over the last year and it’ll be interesting to see which direction these young musicians take next. 

Russell.