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

Friday, June 07, 2019

Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Gala Theatre, Durham - June 7

Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax); Paul Edis (piano)

As usual the Gala Theatre's monthly lunchtime jazz concert was an advance sellout and, as usual, a printed programme indicated the day's set list. On this occasion, the proposed selection of numbers - standards and originals - was largely abandoned by the duo of Vasilis Xenopoulos and Paul Edis. Friends since their days working together in London, they decided to play a whole bunch of other tunes. 

As the concert was about to begin a member of the audience mentioned that she hadn't heard today's saxophonist adding that she was a big fan of Snake Davis. Your correspondent suggested she was in for a treat. Lerner and Loewe's On the Street Where We Live opened the programme - Snake Davis this wasn't! From this point, 'Vasi' (it saves typing out Vasilis Xenopoulos) chose to make the announcements and proceeded to turn It Ain't Necessarily So inside out. Superb, masterful tenor playing.

A brace of Rodgers and Hammerstein - the first, It Might as Well be Spring (it won the composers an Academy Award for Best Original Song, State Fair, 1945) with its worked-out coda entrancing the full house, followed by My Favorite Things. Vasi alluded to Coltrane's famous take on the popular song, however, here in Durham we got Vasi in full flow, GASbook style. Magical!

Pianist Edis, fresh from a triumphant gig at Sage Gateshead the previous evening (as was Vasi), dovetailed seamlessly with his pal from London. Sans rhythm section Edis' left hand worked overtime and his solo flights were as dazzling and inventive as always. Vasi is as fond as any horn player of inserting fleeting quotes into his solos, although compared to Alan Barnes he rationed them to two or three during the one-hour performance rather than two or three every two or three bars! 

Vasi observed that guitarist Nigel Price considers a gig incomplete without a blues. Quite right, sir! Cue Bluesology which turned out to be another killer number as our tenor man took it apart and, considerately, put it together again. Two o'clock, time to go, no way...encore! JS Bach-like counterpoint (they're clever lads Vasi and Paul) set up Autumn Leaves. World class jazz here in Durham and, what's more, Messrs Xenopoulos and Edis will be doing it all again - with a markedly different set list, it should be said - this evening at Ushaw College (7:30) in the company of fellow A-listers Andy Champion, bass, and drummer Russ Morgan. World class? You bet!        

No comments :

Blog Archive