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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

18018 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 339 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (May 7).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Tue 13: ???

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Recital (stage 2): Leah Kirk (voice) @ The Band Room, Music Studios, Assembly Lane, Newcastle University. 3:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Tannery jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Wed 14: Jerron Paxton @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £24.20. Excellent country blues multi-instrumentalist.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. BACK IN BUSINESS, all welcome!

Thu 15: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: The Greatest in Jazz - Guitarists.
Thu 15: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 15: New Ways of Moving in the Counterworlds @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). John Garner & John Pope.

Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Sophie Speed with the Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ Longframlington Memorial Hall. 7:00pm (doors). Tickets: £12.00. from 01665 570984.
Fri 16: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £10.00.
Fri 16: Peter Donegan & Anthony Donegan @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. ‘Lonnie Donegan - The Stories’.

Sat 17: Teresa Watson Band @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sat 17: The Society Quartet @ Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Tel: 0191 500 9494. £26.00 (inc. two course meal). Line-up: Jason Holcomb, Hannah Taylor, Alix Shepherd & Abbie Finn.
Sat 17: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 17: Archie Brown & the Young Bucks @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues, Americana etc.
Sat 17: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Rockabilly, Western swing etc.

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.

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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