Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

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

18122 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 1086 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Dec. 31), 100

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 07: FILM: Blue Moon @ The Forum Cinema, Hexham. 2:00pm. Dir. Richard Linklater’s biopic of Lorenz Hart.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 08: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones of 1976.

Fri 09: The House Trio @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Fri 09: Nauta @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Trio: Jacob Egglestone, Jamie Watkins, Bailey Rudd.
Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Warren James & the Lonesome Travellers @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 09: The Blue Kings @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv.). All-star band.

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

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

Thursday, September 12, 2019

CD Review: Binker Golding - Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers


Binker Golding (tenor sax); Joe Armon-Jones (piano); Daniel Casimir (double bass); Sam Jones (drums)
(Review by Russell)

Binker Golding continues to carry all before him. The saxophonist's partnership with Moses Boyd has elevated the Londoner to, at least in the jazz world, stratospheric heights. If Kamasi Washington is the current big noise in the States, Golding is making one hell of a racket this side of the Atlantic. 

Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers is Golding's latest recording and it comes courtesy of the Binker Golding Quartet or, as the bandleader appears to favour, the Binker Golding band. Regular sparring partner Boyd isn't involved, the quartet's drummer is Sam Jones, Joe Armon-Jones plays piano and Daniel Casimir is Golding's double bass anchor.


This new Gearbox Records' recording continues Golding's preferred method of putting out no-edit material (studio or live album), warts 'n' all. All seven tracks are Golding compositions, the production credit is his, similarly 'art direction amd inlay design'. Echoes of Coltrane's Giant Steps, seventies' funk-to-fusion, hip-hop and hard-blowin' tenor sax are all in the mix over some forty six or so minutes. Pianist Joe Armon-Jones could be the next 'big thing'. Busy on the London scene, in-demand Armon-Jones matches Golding pound-for-pound and the bass and drums - Casimir and Sam Jones - could be thought of as the latter-day Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones.

Coltrane, Brecker, the influences are there but, make no mistake, Binker Golding is his own man.

Abstractions of Reality Past and Incrdible Feathers is available now in CD format on Gearbox Records (GB1555). The album, with a gatefold cover, is also available on 180g vinyl. The album launch at Ronnie Scott's on Wednesday 18 is a sell out (Sarah Tandy replaces Joe Armon-Jones). Golding will be touring the album without the services of Joe Armon-Jones as the pianist has a fractured wrist.    
Russell

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