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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

Sun 18: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 12 noon-2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 18: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 18: Ruth Lambert & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 18: Steve Summers Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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.

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, June 01, 2019

More DJazz news.


(By Rob Adams)
LoLanders hit the road for Durham and Newcastle
A new international band featuring popular visitors to the Bebop Spoken Here heartlands plays gigs in Durham and Newcastle this month.

LoLanders came about as a result of Scottish saxophonist-piper-whistle player Fraser Fifield, whose duo with guitarist Graeme Stephen has won friends on Tyneside down the years, meeting a friend in a bar.
The friend had noticed the tours that have been going out under the Jazz Promotion Network’s Going Dutch project and suggested that Fifield, who has worked successfully in the Netherlands and has a following among musicians there, might be able to put something together with some of his contacts.
“I immediately thought of Oene van Geel, the violist with jazz-raga trio the Nordanians and together we approached the Going Dutch people, who had been hoping that some collaborations between Dutch musicians and players over here might result from the project,” says Fifield.
Fifield had enjoyed guesting in Amsterdam with the Nordanians, who have made visits to Newcastle and Gateshead over the past two or three years and he knew, also, that Graeme Stephen had played with Van Geel’s string quartet, Zapp4. Van Geel also has a long partnership with bass guitarist Mark Haanstra and with the addition of Glasgow-based tablas player Hardeep ‘Sodhi’ Deerhe and Dutch percussionist Udo Demandt, LoLanders was formed.
“What was most exciting for me, and I think for all the other musicians too, was that we’d never all played together before we got together to rehearse for the first gig, at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, in January,” says Fifield. “We knew we had six experienced players, some of whom knew each other, but it really was a case of let’s see what happens.”
The Celtic Connections gig went very well – The Herald’s Keith Bruce enthused about the group’s strong grooves and the quality of its compositions and musicianship – and further dates, including Glasgow Jazz Festival and the Bimhuis in Amsterdam quickly came in for the new band.
“It’s been great knowing that this wasn’t going to be just a one-off, as can often happen with these sorts of collaborations,” says Fifield. “Right from the start, when we met up in a studio in the Scottish Borders, it felt like a band and by the time we played that first gig, it seemed that there was already a band identity, in terms of sound as well as collective spirit.”
With Fifield concentrating on pipes and whistles, there’s a strong folk music element in the music but as van Geel points out, there are also chamber music qualities as well as there being a lot of room for improvisation.
“This is a band – and music – that really comes alive in the moment,” says the violist, whose wordless vocals add to the world music vibe that the two percussionists drum up.
“We’re really looking forward to taking LoLanders out on the road,” says van Geel. “As well as playing at the Durham City Jazz Festival on June 7th and in a double bill in Newcastle [Bridge Hotel, June 23rd] with another Going Dutch band, Under the Surface, we have gigs in Sheffield, Ambleside, Glasgow and Bath in the UK and Nijmegen, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. There’s some crazy travelling involved but it’s going to be fun.” 
Rob Adams

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