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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

Friday, October 04, 2019

CD Review: Jean Toussaint Allstar 6tet - Live at the Jazz Cafe 091218

Jean Toussaint (tenor sax); Byron Wallen (trumpet); Dennis Rollins (trombone); Andrew McCormack (piano); Daniel Casimir (bass); Shaney Forbes (drums); Williams Cumberbache Perez (percussion)
(Review by Lance).

No, not our Jazz Café but the other one down Camden Town way - this is one gig I'd love to have been at. However, all is not lost, we've got over an hour and a half of it on this double CD due to be released on October 11 - the centenary of Art Blakey's birth. There'll be no shortage of centennials but, this one may be unique as not many of them, unless Courtney jumps on the bandwagon, will contain an actual Jazz Messenger in the personnel. Jean Toussaint's been there, done it and got the shades to prove it.

Blakey laid down the template for hard bop just as Bird and Diz did for the bebop revolution some years previous. The Messengers' young lions emerged from Blakey's guidance to become the most influential names in modern jazz and it's true to say that Toussaint's crew could have easily slotted into their places having themselves learnt from the past masters before finding their own voices.

The music was recorded at the end of a long tour promoting the band's previous CD Brother Raymond, an album currently nominated for an APPJAG award and one of my choices for Album of the Year in 2018. Some of the compositions are on the original album but, being from a live gig, are given extended treatment.

Toussaint, truly a 'Tenor Titan' - to use an expression the late Chris Yates
was fond of - is perhaps the most underrated tenor saxist around. A tone to die for and a technique that doesn't need 1000 notes to put the message over. 

Rollins plays the field - everything from Kid Ory to Roswell Rudd via Trummy Young plus a whole lot of himself. 

If Art Blakey was still around, the trumpet lineage would most probably read: Morgan, Dorham, Hubbard, Mitchell, Blanchard, Marsalis, Wallen. Yes Wallen is in that league.

Andrew McCormack is world class as is the rhythm section - even Shaney Forbes who probably, as drummer, has the hardest job of all. He does good.

The official launch is at Cadogan Hall as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival on November 23.
Lance
Available on LYTE Records.

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