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Bebop Spoken There

George Colligan: ''I think to be a successful musician, you must be versatile to make a living — until you find your niche''. (DownBeat, July 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

17,612 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 576 of them this year alone and, so far, 54 this month (July 18).

From This Moment On ...

JULY 2025

Sat 19: Streets of Brass @ Durham City. From 10:00am. Free. Various street bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Mr Wilson’s Second Liners: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 12 noon. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. SOLD OUT! A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Bollywood Brass Band @ Monument Metro Station & Haymarket Metro Station, Newcastle. 2:00pm & 3:00pm & 4:00pm (3 x 30 mins). Free. A Gem Arts Masala Festival event.
Sat 19: Diddy Sweg: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 2:00pm. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Brazen Brass Band: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 12 noon. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Party in the Park @ Wharton Park, Durham. 5:00-9:00pm. Free. Ten street brass bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 19: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Chopwell Community Centre. 8:00pm.

Sun 20: Streets of Brass @ Durham City. From 11:00am. Free. Various street bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 20: Always Drinking Marching Band: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 11:00am. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 20: New York Brass Band: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 1:00pm. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 20: Das Brass: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 3:00pm. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 20: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: Pope/Garner/Byrne/Alderson @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 21: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 21: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 21: New Century Syncopated Seven @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 22: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.

Wed 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 23: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 23: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 23: Isobel Pearce Quartet @ Dept. of Music, Palace Green, Durham University. 8:15pm. £10.00. & £7.00. First night of two. A Durham Fringe Festival event.

Thu 24: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Tony Roberts presents ‘Progressive Jazz’.
Thu 24: Soweto Kinch + Theo Croker + Joe Webb Trio + Rivkala @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 8:00pm (doors 7:30pm). £23.00. A BBC Proms event.
Thu 24: Isobel Pearce Quartet @ Dept. of Music, Palace Green, Durham University. 8:15pm. £10.00. & £7.00. Second night of two. A Durham Fringe Festival event.

Fri 25: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 25: The Society Quartet @ Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Tel: 0191 500 9494. £26.00 (inc. two course meal).
Fri 25: Trio Grand @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton Mill. 6:00pm. Free. Barbara Wilcox (keyboards, vocals); Paul Carter (bass); George Voros (drums, vocals).
Fri 25: Bold Big Band @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £18.00.; £12.00.; £6.00.; £4.00. A Newcastle Fringe Festival event.
Fri 25: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Country blues guitar & vocals. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Pete Tanton's Riviera Quartet @ Gala Theatre, Durham - October 11

Pete Tanton (trumpet, flugelhorn); Mark Williams (guitar); Andy Champion (bass); Russ Morgan (drums).

(Review by Brian Ebbatson/Photos courtesy of Malcolm Sinclair).

It’s not often that a band arrives with a mission statement, but that is the case with the Riviera Quartet, who arrived to play the Gala Studio Friday lunchtime set, but found themselves transferred to the main theatre with its spacious stage, sophisticated lighting and ample room for the 100+ audience. And they spread the magic of their music in accordance with their mission. Which - in case you missed it - is “to bring the combined energy of bossa nova, blues and bebop to new listeners and to build a broad audience. Imagine driving along the highway from Nice to Monaco, or even Los Angeles to Monterey, in a convertible – this is the music you would listen to.”

Pete Tanton opened the set with Chega de Saudade (aka No More Blues) in direct tribute both to “our spiritual guide”, composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, and “our musical inspiration”, Dizzy Gillespie and Lalo Schifrin’s 1962 album Dizzy on the Riviera. Pete’s opening trumpet gave a taste of what was to follow, clear fresh tones, melodic improvisation, a tight, driving rhythm section and inventive guitar work. A suitable scene-setter for a series of originals from the pens of Tanton and Williams, none of which failed to meet the mission statement criteria and all of which sat well with the Jobim/Gillespie/Schifrin classic.

Barbados – a track from their CDfollowed. A catchy melody with a Caribbean lilt, giving space not just for Pete’s trumpet but for extended guitar work by Mark. Turf War (also on the CD) followed, a Horace Silverish opening theme, countered by Mark’s smooth chords, leading to relaxed flugel and guitar solos.

Pete switched to muted trumpet – more cool Miles than Dizzy – for the third CD track, Mark’s There They’re There. With Russ weaving his patterns on brushes and Andy just doing what he does best, Mark again strode out on guitar and Andy showed he too can improvise melody. Drums, bass, guitar and muted trumpet exchange eights, before Mark and Pete roll the music to an atmospheric close.

Time for Pete to reveal another aspect of the quartet’s playing – his voice - in three numbers. First To Heaven Overnight, a sort of celebratory love song, lyrics and composition both by Tanton, to be released as a single next year. Very Jobimesque lyrics – "To heaven overnight, please take me there ….. come with me tonight .. carry us away on its wings…." . Then One Kiss, a single now available on Spotify and iTunes, a distinctly Brazilian feel, particularly the theme of loss and desertion (shades of Chega de Saudade – “Não há beleza é só tristeza e a melancholia – look it up!). “I kissed her lips just yesterday, but now she kisses someone else today”. Another – happier – love affair is told in I Fall in Love, again a Latin rhythm featuring Mark on guitar. “I fall in love every time you are near me. I fall in love every time you whisper to me ….)
Before the final number Pete paid tribute to Mike Furlonger, a close friend and jazz enthusiast who passed away last year after a diagnosis with Motor Neurone Disease and invited the audience to express their appreciation in a collection for the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MDNA).  Whether Mark’s Booze Blues was an appropriate title is open, but the boppish number certainly gave the band the opportunity to stretch out with flowing solos – all enthusiastically received – by Mark, Andy and Russ (the loudest applause of the set) and Pete, a great close to a great gig.

A great reception too, many in the audience wanting them back, saying it was the best concert yet in the series, a complement repaid by Pete’s “What a lovely crowd to play for. It was a real pleasure to play here.” This was a polished performance, each player standing out. The musicians know each other inside out and it shows. OK, the A1(M) through Durham is not the highway to Monterey or the autoroute du midi, but the music was what it says on the tin - fresh, melodious and different – and you want to hear it again. Mission accomplished.
Brian E
PS Over £200 was raised for MNDA. If you want to add your support, follow this link 

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