Bebop Spoken There

Christian McBride: ''We knew back in the day that Emmet [Cohen] had it.'' (DownBeat July, 2026)

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

18699 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 573 of them this year alone and, so far this month (July 11) 27

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

From This Moment On

July

Wed 15: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 15: Willington Big Brass Bash @ Town Park, Willington. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Wed 15: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Café Needle’s Eye, Promenade, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea NE64 6XE. 6:00pm. Free. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.
Wed 15: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 15: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 15: Side Café Orkestar @ The Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.00 (£11.00. adv.); £12.00 concs (£8.00. concs adv.).

Thu 16: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 16: Spennymoor Big Brash Bash @ Jubilee Park, Spennymoor. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Thu 16: Coxhoe Little Brass Bash @ Village Green (Pit Wheel). 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Thu 16: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Lollo Rosso, Morpeth. 7:30pm. Free. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.
Thu 16: Stevie Jay Duo @ Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. Free. Julija Jacenaite & Steve Glendinning.
Thu 16: DK Harrell @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £20.00 + bf. USA blues.
Thu 16: Paul Skerritt @ Angels' Share, St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle NE2 2SX. 8:00pm. Free. Booking advised (0191 200 1975). Skerritt w. backing tapes.

Fri 17: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 17: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 17: Seaham Big Brass Bash @ Terrace Green, Seaham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Fri 17: Newton Aycliffe Big Brass Bash @ Town Park, Newton Aycliffe. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Fri 17: Ray Stubbs R&B Allstars @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Old Black Cat Jazz Club.
Fri 17: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm.
Fri 17: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Repas 7 by Night, Berwick. 8:00pm. Free. Lollo Rosso, Morpeth. 8:00pm. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.

Sat 18: Streets of Brass @ Market Place, Durham City. 10:00am-4:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Sat 18: Brass Boat Cruise @ Boathouse, Elvet Bridge Jetty, Durham City. Departures at 10:30am, 12 noon, 1:30pm, 3:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £5.00 (all prices + bf). Durham Brass Festival. Various bands.
Sat 18: Party in the Park @ Wharton Park, Durham City. 5:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands. Entrance o/s Durham Railway Station (Northbound platform).
Sat 18: Zoë Gilby & Dean Stockdale @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm.
Sat 18: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00-9:00pm. £10.00.
Sat 18: Tyne Valley Big Band + Revolutionaires @ Pelton Community Centre. 7:00pm. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 18: Dale Storr @ The Straw Yard, The Barracks, Berwick. 7:30pm. £15.38. Solo piano.
Sat 18: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Red Lion Inn, Alnmouth. 8:30pm. Free. Lollo Rosso, Morpeth. 8:00pm. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.

Sun 19: Brass Boat Cruise @ Boathouse, Elvet Bridge Jetty, Durham City. Departures at 10:30am, 12 noon, 1:30pm, 3:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £5.00 (all prices + bf). Durham Brass Festival. Various bands.
Sun 19: Jacob Egglestone Trio @ The Bandstand, The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free.
Sun 19: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bishop Auckland Town hall. 2:00pm. £7.00 (inc. bf). A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 19: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Table reservations (0191 261 8000). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 19: Michael Young Trio @ Engine Room, Sunderland. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 19: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 19: SwanNek @ The Bandstand, The Sele, Hexham. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 19: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Twelve 06, High St., Newbiggin-by-the-Sea NE64 6DR. 3:00pm. Free. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.
Sun 19: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 19: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sun 19: Dale Storr: The Sounds of New Orleans @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Solo piano. POSTPONED!

Mon 20: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 20: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 21: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Joe Deans.

Friday, December 28, 2018

RIP Nipper

The sad news is that HMV is once again going into administration and, sadly, this time it looks as if Nipper, like HMV's 2000 plus employees, will no longer be the musical face of the High Street.

This, in an era when, smaller, independent record shops are appearing on every street corner, seems to be an anachronism. People are downloading rather than buying CDs yet are still shelling out for vinyl at grossly inflated prices. 

The debate on the merits of the two formats goes on. 

Personally, I like vinyl because you can at least read the notes without a magnifying glass. However, as the name implies, CDs are more compact and take up less space but, whereas I lovingly hold an LP, almost caressing it before I place it on the turntable and listen, a CD is, irrespective of the music, colder, almost frigid by comparision. The scratching sounds of well-played vinyl are as much a part of the listening experience as the moans and groans emoted whilst in the ecstatic throes of passion.  They become wallpaper alongside say, Songs For Swinging Lovers, A Kind of Blue, Concert by the Sea or your own particular favourite.

Downloads? I can't be arsed with them although, maybe soon I'll have no choice. However, whereas you can't buy a download in a charity shop for 50p, jazz LPs you can - they are out there, you just have to look...
Lance.
PS: 78s too!

2 comments :

Ken Drew (on F/b) said...

Well Said !:) Shame about Nipper though 😕

Steve T said...

The only thing vinyls have going for them is the album sleeve; so nothing - just buy a poster (my friend bought a magnifying glass to read the liner notes of Mingus' Black Saint). Vinyls were designed specifically for radio play and the artists didn't actually like the snap, crackle and pop.

The problem with downloads/streaming is that people tend not to play the album. Some bands - ie Genesis/ Pink Floyd - have tried to stop people selecting tracks, but nobody takes any notice.

Some people in the media have tried to say CDs never took off, which is patently nonsense. I remember Piers Morgan saying, in a claim befitting of a Dallas scriptwriter, we went from vinyls to downloads.

Five years ago the only people who cared about vinyls were the half a dozen people who weren't sufficiently interested in music to replace their half a dozen vinyls. Does nobody else think it curious that all of these people went back to vinyls at the same time, which just so happens to coincide with the time the media started telling us to; a bit like the Beatles in the nineties.

We flatter ourselves it's about freewill, taste, opinion. There's a very famous essay by Marshall McLuhan called ' the Medium is the Message' (written in the sixties (I think)) where he claims people are more interested in the means of transmission than the content.

The figures are also grossly exaggerated by the media. Just over 4 million last year against nearly 3 million of just one Ed Sheeran album, and over 40 million CDs; the media didn't tell us that; they didn't mention Cds at all.

Since the media tells us that music fans prefer vinyls (vinyls fans prefer vinyls, music fans prefer music), if each one gets one for christmas, one for birthday, one for fathers day, one on vinyls record shop day and one just because they're such big music fans, that's about 2 thousand people buying vinyls.

Last year the BBC claimed that almost half of vinyls bought remained sealed, while they download/stream the music. The vinyls are left lying around as a demonstration of how right-on he is - it's always always stupid, white, straight men.

No doubt it'll be up again this year, now that all us middle class, middle aged, square men got a player last christmas. Christmas, birthday, fathers day presents for life.

I've even heard people say they prefer vinyls because great music is supposed to be difficult, and it requires effort to turn it over after side one and you have to go to a shop or a post-office because it won't fit through a letter-box. I don't think this is what people mean when they say the best music requires effort.

The insistence on vinyls has been catastrophic to the Soul Scene. When I left it in the early nineties, it was the best it's ever been and going in the right direction (in no small part, because of me). I had the best collection of vinyls in the region (probably still unsurpassed) and now have one of the best collections (on CD) in the country, perhaps the world. Now any fool with half a box of not very good vinyls can turn up and play the same rubbish every night and middle-aged men who went to Wigan Casino years too late and haven't been anywhere since will say KTF.

The media tell us that vinyls will save music (like punk-rock and the Beatles) but the reverse is true (in all three cases). The greatest collections of music on a hard copy the world will ever see has been CDs. The good news for me is they're drying up; the bad news is they're rocketing in price. The media don't tell us that either.

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