Total Pageviews

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

Saturday, November 03, 2018

CD Review: John McLaughlin and the Fourth Dimension with Jimmy Herring and the Invisible Whip - Live in San Francisco.

John McLaughlin (12 string double neck and 6 string guitars), Ranjit Barot (drums, konocol and vocals), Gary Husband (electric piano and synths), Etienne M'Bappe (bass guitar and vocals). 

James Herring (guitar), Jason Crosby (violin, Fender Rhodes and vocals), Kevin Scott (bass guitar), Jeff Sipe (drums and gong), Matt Slocum (Hammond B3 and clavinet).
(Review by Steve T.)

It's probably easier to think of this as a Mahavishnu Orchestra album and MO Mk 1 was, at least, first and foremost a live band. This is where they changed lives, mine included. Because John is a musician who never really looked back, while there's been plenty of bootlegs, legitimate live recordings of their repertoire are pretty scarce, with three of mixed quality finally getting approval a few years back.

As far as memory serves, this is the same set-list Francis and I saw in Chicago three weeks earlier (about this time last year). It's more or less a best of/greatest hits set - insomuch as such terms have any relevancy here - drawn from the three albums by the original line-up and Visions of the Emerald Beyond from Mk 2; my favourite album and his.


Meeting of the Spirits kicked things off, as it did when he unleashed their debut album on an unsuspecting world in 1971. Straight into Birds of Fire, title track and opener of their follow-up, which seems to have more weight than in the studio, with more power-house drumming and exchanging guitar solos from the two players, and Herring's would be perfectly blistering in any other company. 
     
Back to the debut for Lotus on Irish Springs, which here sounds like it could have been recorded ten years later, in very different times for John McLaughlin and fusion jazz. Dance of Maya is another heavyweight from the same album which leads into Trilogy, from Between Nothingness and Eternity, a live set from 73, released to fulfil contractual obligations, with a studio version eventually rolling up as the millennium drew to a close. Ranjit Barot provides the Indian konocal singing style many people in the West would have first heard in his next band Shakti.
Earth Ship and Eternity's Breath are two killers from the Visions of the Emerald Beyond - an album chocker full of killers - and, while brilliant, the shortcomings in the vocal department are more apparent than I remember from the live gig.
Also from that album, Be Happy was the encore in Chicago and closes this set following more konocal by way of introduction. I can still remember being grateful for the encore, and such an explosive piece late in the set, but also a tinge of sadness that it had to come to an end.
Out now and in your local record store (there’s still a few) for a mere £15. 
Hugely recommended.

Steve T.      

No comments :

Blog Archive