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Bebop Spoken There

Trevor Mires: ''My mum is a Dean Martin fan: I'm not, so I would grab my skateboard and get out of the house whenever I heard "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime." ". (Jazzwise, April 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

17957 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 278 of them this year alone and, so far, 34 this month (April 14).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Sun 20: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 20: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 20: Spilt Milk @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 20: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: C.A.L.I.E @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 21: Newcastle Record Fair @ Copthorne Hotel, Newcastle. 10:00am. Going in search of the Buddy Bolden cylinder…
Mon 21: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. Coquetdale Jazz.

Wed 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 23: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 23: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED!

Thu 24: Mary Coughlan @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £33.80. Blues, jazz etc.
Thu 24: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT! Duo performance.
Fri 25: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums).
Fri 25: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton Mill. 6:00-9:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Fri 25: Struggle Buggy @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. Rhythm & blues.
Fri 25: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £20.30., £18.00. All-star big band.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums). An Opus 4 Jazz Club event.

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

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Another Man Done Gone - An appraisal by Ann Alex.

I wrote in a previous post of a blues song that I heard performed by one of the students at the Final Recitals of the Folk and Traditional Course which were held at Sage Gateshead.  After some research, I was amazed to discover that many singers, such as Johnny Cash and John Mayall, had recorded it, yet I’d never heard it before. The song was first collected by the famous folk and blues researcher, Alan Lomax, in the 19C. I simply just had to do one of my song appraisals, so here goes:-
Another Man Done Gone

Another man done gone
Another man done gone
Another man done gone
From the county farm
Another man done gone

I didn’t know his name x4
Another man done gone

He had a long chain on x4
Another man done gone

They killed another man x4

They set the dogs on him x3
Tore him limb from limb
Another man done gone

They killed another man x3
From the county farm
Another man done gone

YouTube has slightly different versions, and a singer could switch various lines for effect. For instance, verse 2 could simply have the 1st line repeated for the whole verse. Blues songs, like folk songs,  come in different versions. The power of this song comes from its seeming simplicity and the fact that the story is revealed gradually so that the listener is involved. If the singer is a woman, a listener may suppose that this is a song of lost love after hearing the 1st verse, but then the awful truth is revealed later. ‘I didn’t know his name’ suggests lots of men herded together in the chain gang. ‘He had a long chain on (internal rhyme) is more effective than saying ‘he was wearing a long chain.’
And here is a problem which a singer must sort out. Is it about a man dying through exhaustion or murder in a chain gang, or is he a slave killed by his owner, as suggested by ‘They set the dogs on him?’ It may be advisable to sing either one verse or the other, but not both, as I understand that the chain gangs came after slavery. Many ex-slaves actually ended up working in chain gangs after the official end of slavery.

The steady but relentless pulse of the beat imitates chain gang marching, so a steady drum accompaniment is effective. The repetition of the 1st verse at the end could be done quietly, or angrily, with loud drum beats. 
Truly a gem of a song, and so powerful.
Ann Alex.

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