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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18043 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 364 of them this year alone and, so far, 42 this month (May 15).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Mon 19: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 19: Lewis Watson Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 20: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.
Tue 20: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth NE61 1ND. 8:00pm.

Wed 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 21: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public). b Wed 21: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 22: Nuevo Castillo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £5.00.
Thu 22: Anna Reay & Deon Krishnan @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:30-9:15pm. Free.
Thu 22: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 23: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. ‘Celebrating Oscar’.
Fri 23: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 23: Anna Reay & Deon Krishnan @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Joe Steels Group @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. + £1.55. bf. A Northumberland Jazz Festival fringe event.
Fri 23: Spilt Milk @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 23: Gaz Hughes Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm.
Fri 23: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm. £19.00.; £17.00. ‘Time After Time’.

Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:15pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bywell Hall, Stocksfield. 1:30pm. Northumberland County Show.
Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ The Peacock, Sunderland. 6:00pm.
Sat 24: Dean Stockdale Quartet + Mingus Sings @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Stockdale (piano); Tim Williams (guitar); Gavin Barras (double bass); Gaz Hughes (drums) + Mingus Sings: Sara Oschlag (vocals); Alan Barnes (reeds); Tim Lapthorn (piano); Arnie Somogyi (double bass); Clark Tracey (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sat 24: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 24: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sat 24: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £3.00. + bf.
Sat 24: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 25: Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion: Bandstand Sessions @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ Spanish City Plaza (outdoor stage). 1:00pm. Free. A Whitley Bay Carnival event.
Sun 25: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Catriona Bourne Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Bourne (harp), Francis Tulip (guitar), James Owston (double bass), Joe Bainbridge (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Struggle Buggy @ The Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 25: Joe Steels Group + Norma Winstone (vocals); Nikki Iles (piano); Mike Walker (guitar); Steve Watts (double bass). 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Steels (guitar); Ferg Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Ben Lawrence (piano); Paul Susans (double bass); John Hirst (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 25: Xhosa Cole/Neil Charles/Mark Sanders @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A JNE promotion. Note: Xhosa Cole replaces Nicole Mitchell.

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, March 05, 2019

Giles Strong Trio @ Gala Theatre, Durham, - March 1

(Review & trio photo courtesy of Brian Ebbatson. Individual photos courtesy of Malcolm Sinclair).

For the third concert of the 2019 Lunchtime Jazz series, the capacity audience at the Durham Gala was to be enthralled by a debut performance of the Giles Strong Trio, featuring the engaging and inventive playing of three musicians making their first outing together. Over the past 2 years (or more?) Giles and Roly have established a deserved reputation as a guitar duo, but this was to be their first opportunity to show their wares alongside the accomplished bass of Ian Paterson.

The setlist too was a new departure. “This was all new material for all of us,” said Roly, “so this was its first outing. Giles did most of the hard work on the arrangements, but I tried to take some of the burden with a couple of pieces”. “The bass too is important,” he went on, “it provides much more than just rhythm and harmony, it is the anchor that holds the whole performance together”.



This was clear from the first number, Gene de Paul’s I’ll Remember April, opening with a distinctive bass riff from Ian, leading Roly into the melody and an extended solo (‘That’s Jim Hall’, I wrote down immediately.) The bass then stood out while the two guitars took on the tune, each responding to and supporting each other’s solos. Then Giles came back to the theme and that riff to bring back Ian for the close.

This set the pattern for the arrangements to come. To my (non-musician) ear, Giles’ had sought to pare down the melodies to their essence, often carried by the bass, but used by all instruments to build their solos. Sometimes the interplay was between the two guitarists, sometimes between the bass and one of them, at others between all three. At different times each player led, followed, responded, soloed, stood out, then together they picked up the theme again and took the piece to its close.

Supported by Roly’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the jazz canon, Giles introduced each number, acknowledging the composers / lyricists, giving some of the background (the film, the musical, the first or most famous artist to feature it, the 40’s ‘back to nature living’ Hollywood experiment behind Eder Ahbez’s Nature Boy etc.).  

Then the music. Nature Boy, Cole Porter’s Love for Sale, Giles’ own Everything \was Beautiful,  Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach’s Yesterdays, Johnny Green’s Body and Soul, Fragos/Baker/Gasparre’s I Hear a Rhapsody, they were all vehicles for skilled arrangements, lyrical exposition, intense interplay and inspired improvisation, leaving the audience fully engaged, enthralled and warmly appreciative. There were two more compositions by the guitarists, Roly Veitch’s WT Blues, and Giles’ Billie’s Blues, both executed with the same freshness and invention as the standards and fully able to stand alongside them. (WT (Blues) stands for ‘Whole Tone’ as in whole tone scale, described by Giles as “made up of six notes with each note being a tone apart. It can sound quite restless because it doesn’t have a clear tonal centre, as compared to, for example, a major scale”. So enlightenment as well as musical inspiration for the audience!)
 
Billie’s Blues was to be the closer, but the audience wanted more, so the trio obliged with a full-length Alone Together (by Arthur Schwarz and Howard Dietz for the 1932 Broadway musical Flying Colours). For me the only disappointment was that Roly didn’t break into song at any point, but that in no way detracts from the quality or enjoyment of an excellent performance way to spend an early spring lunchtime.

Brian

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