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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

17719 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 39 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Jan. 15).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sat 18: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 18: Alter Ego + Jamie Toms/Graham Don Duo @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 18: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Repas 7 by Night, West St., Berwick TD15 1AS. 7:30pm. Free. Album launch gig.
Sat 18: Delta Prophets @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 19: Glenn Miller Orchestra UK @ Glasshouse, Gateshead. 3:00pm. ‘Glenn Miller & the Rat Pack Era’.
Sun 19: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 19: Spilt Milk @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:15-7:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 19: Tenement Jazz Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 19: Nick Ross Orchestra @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm.
Sun 19: Freight Train (Tobin/Noble/Clarvis) @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 19: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 21: ???

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.
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.

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, September 07, 2019

Hokum Hotshots 50 Not Out! @ Prohibition Bar - September 6

Hokum Hotshots: Peter Mason (guitar, tiple, vocals); Jim Murray (guitar, mandolin, vocals) + Rob Mason (harmonica, vocals) 
(Review by Russell)

Fifty not out! Peter Mason and Jim Murray were celebrating half a century working together as the Hokum Hotshots. The word was Prohibition Bar would be busy...it was! As the doors opened a mad rush ensued to bag a ringside seat. 

Hokum is blues with a smile on its face - that's the Hokum Hotshots' take on the tradition; jugs, blues and old timey as played by the pioneering, largely Mississippi Delta-based, musicians of some one hundred years ago. Hawaiian shirts de rigueur, Messrs Mason and Murray don't take themselves too seriously...maybe one day but don't count on it!   

Surrounded by some serious hardware - Gibsons, Martins, washboard (necktie version) and a tiple (yes, a tiple, look it up!) the hokum held the full house spellbound. Imagine you're jumpin' a freight train, along the way you'll encounter the likes of Woody Guthrie, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Frank Stokes, Casey Bill Weldon, Frank Ferrera (nice Hawaiian shirt!), Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy and, this being the Newcastle Central railhead, Jimmie Rodgers.  

Seminole BluesMy Time Ain't LongBig Bill's Blues (as with many tunes of the era titles were, and continue to be, somewhat inexact), the duo's excellent (You Don't Need) No Religion, our duo unearthed some gems to entertain the Friday night (blues dancing at the back) crowd. The hooch flowed, tales were told, some with expletives aimed, by and large, at Mason by Murray then Murray to Mason. Rob Mason, harmonica, joined the boys on a couple of numbers, the duo, then trio, had a ball. They've been doin' it for so long they ain't gonna stop now!   
  
Earlier, Blind Pig Blues Club co-founder Lee Bates opened the evening with a half hour set.

Lee Bates (guitar, vocals)

Amiable patter comes easily to Bates and he took a dig at the evening's top of the bill act saying he thought at least one of them - Mason or Murray - was still alive! Delta bluesmen Wille Lee Brown, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Luke Jordan and the spledidly named Hezekiah Jenkins were aboard Bates' Mississippi-bound freight train. 

Church Bells Blues (comp L Jordan) rang out, superb. The Panic is On (comp H Jenkins) from 1931 drew a parallel with today's 'state of the nation' (Bates could scarcely conceal his contempt!), Irving Berlin's My Walking Stick, Bates' acoustic guitar and vocals were interspersed with anecdotes, not least about first hearing the Houm Hotshots when his father took him along to a gig way back when. Lee Bates knew the evening wasn't about him, it was all about Peter Mason and Jim Murray.   
Russell

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