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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

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: Red Kites Jazz @ Parish Hall, St Barnabas’ Church, Rowlands Gill. 7:30pm. £10.00. BYOB (tea & coffee available), raffle. Proceeds to St Barnabas’ Church. Performance feat. Shayo (vocals).
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

Tuesday, June 05, 2018

DJazz: The Durham City Jazz Festival: Soweto Kinch - June 2

Soweto Kinch (alto saxophone, electronics, rapping); Nick Jurd (double bass); Will Glaser (drums)
(Review and photo - below left - by Russell/ photo right by Jerry) 
He read Modern History at Oxford, he’s won BBC and MOBO awards, received a Mercury Prize nomination (jazz musicians don’t win the Mercury), presents BBC Radio 3’s late night Jazz Now programme, confronts the politics of the music business (the EP War in a Rack a case in point), records albums and tours the world. DJazz wondered if he was up for a headline gig in Durham Miners’ Hall. He was, he came, he conquered.

DJazz is in its second year, tickets were selling well. The news that Soweto Kinch would be the headline attraction ensured the festival would sell out. And so it did. A rainswept early Saturday evening didn’t deter the hordes as they made their way up Flass Street to the DMA. The Durham Miners’ Association HQ stands in its own grounds, boasting the ‘Pitman’s Parliament’ or Durham Miners’ Hall as it is more formally known. The audience (perhaps that should be ‘delegates’) sat row upon row ready to engage – musically, and for some, politically – with Soweto Kinch.

Alto sax, Apple Mac, pedal board…the everyday hardware of the twenty-first century musician, a far cry from the days of the non-electric practitioner some one hundred years ago. Kinch played material from his CD Nonagram. The album’s title refers to time signatures, mathematics and… don’t worry if your head hurts at the prospect of equations and such like, simply enjoy the music. You will enjoy it, Kinch’s alto sax playing isn’t for the faint-hearted, he goes for the jugular, grabs hold and doesn’t let go. Coruscating alto lines hot plate welded to a hip-hop beat keep on coming, resistance is futile, sit back and take it! Centricity to Nostalgia and on to Mitosis then Montpellier, Kinch played with cast iron authority, he’s been doing this professionally for over twenty years.

On this DJazz gig were regular bassist Nick Jurd and the razor-sharp drummer Will Glaser. Their role was to anchor the hip-hop beat, steering a steady course for Kinch to explore; upper register, lower register, filtered laptop loops, then the poetry. Soweto Kinch’s party piece required the on-side crowd’s participation in a freestyle rap. DURHAM suggested Kinch, asking the audience to shout out a word beginning with D. Only in Geordieland could someone bellow DIVINT! Meaning DO NOT, Kinch got it. Next U…UNITY…Kinch liked the solidarity angle, RAIN, topical, H...again only in Geordieland…HOWAY! Again Kinch got it…COME ON or COME ALONG. A, ANARCHY, our altoist was in his element. Finally M…MAJESTIC. A smiling Soweto Kinch looked around the  audience, knowing he could do it. To another killer hip-hop beat, Kinch, the freestyling rapper, went for it and, sure enough, seamlessly incorporated the words into his rap. Quick-witted is Kinch, his alto playing ain’t half bad either, a worthy headliner at DJazz The Durham City Jazz Festival. 
Russell.          

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