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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

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

JazzMain: Diggin Dexter! @ The Jazz Bar (Edinburgh Fringe Festival) - August 26

Nick Gould (tenor sax); Steve Grossart (piano); Iain Harkness (double bass); Kevin Dorrian (drums) 
(Review by Russell)

South of the border it was a public holiday, in Scotland's capital city it was just another work day Monday. Edinburgh's countless tourists were enjoying/enduring sweltering temperatures while down a flight of stairs on Chambers Street the basement Jazz Bar offered some relief from the burning sun. On this, the final day of this year's Fringe Festival, Nick Gould brought in JazzMain to play a mid-afternoon Dexter Gordon set. 

No time to lose at a Fringe gig - one hour, hit the ground running and, as Gordon himself would have said...Go! Straight in with Sticky Wicket. Steve Grossart at the Jazz Bar's Yamaha piano put down a marker on You Stepped Out of a Dream with bassist Iain Harkness stepping up and Kevin Dorrian covering everything behind the traps as JazzMain's main man, tenor saxophonist Nick Gould, took on the challenge of doing justice to the music of the quartet's subject, the legendary Dexter Gordon. 

The American left behind a vast amount of material for tenor players like Gould to work with and on a one hour gig like this tough choices had to be made. From You Stepped Out of Dream to Darn That Dream, JazzMain held the attention of an attentive Fringe audience. Mrs. Miniver again showcased Grossart's fine 'old school' piano playing and again on a couple of Latin treatments including Catalonian Nights

The Dexter Gordon years on Blue Note and Prestige featured alongside SteepleChase cuts and, as Gould remarked, he simply had to play Cheese Cake from Go! In doing so our tenor saxophonist observed that the Van Gelder Studio recording was made on August 27, 1962...all of one day short of exactly fifty eight years ago! Back then it was Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins working with Gordon, here at the Jazz Bar Messrs Grossart, Harkness and Dorrian gave sterling support to Gould. 

The hour was just about up as JazzMain wound up with Soy Califa from a favourite Dexter Gordon album of Gould's, A Swingin' Affair (Gould's diligent pre-gig research noted the Blue Note recording followed two days on - same line-up, same studio - from the Go! session). If your kind of tenor playing is swinging, straight-down-the-middle tenor, then look no further, Nick Gould is your man.    
Russell

1 comment :

Nick Gould (on F/b) said...

Oh wow that was a surprise! Thanks for the review Russell!

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