Total Pageviews

6960248

Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 2024).

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

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sat 04: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Square, Middlesbrough. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 04: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. Xmas party (rescheduled from early December).

Sun 05: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 05: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 05: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, jazz & blues.
Sun 05: Papa G’s Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 09: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: John H Hammond.
Thu 09: FILM: Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 2:35pm. Documentary (dir. Johan Grimonprez) ‘about jazz, (de)colonial history and activism featuring Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie’.
Thu 09: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 09: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 09: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session now monthly, next one Thursday 2nd Feb, then first Thursday in the month thereafter.

Fri 10: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. 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

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Preview: Ella & Miles go to the movies

(Preview by Russell)

You wait an age then two, no, three come along at once. Just as the no. 38 bus comes into view you can be sure another one isn't far behind followed by another. As John Akomfrah's arthouse film Precarity nears the end of its run at Baltic, two jazz documentary films open in Bebop Spoken Here's heartland (aka the north east of England). As Buddy Bolden (Precarity) departs (Oct 27), Ella and Miles arrive this Friday (Oct 18).

Precarity imagines Buddy Bolden. Jazz historians take the view that film footage of the legendary figure simply doesn't exist. This is far from the case with Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis. Two documentary films - Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things and Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool - released this year draw upon the moving image to illustrate the story, the legend, of Ella and Miles. Familiar names offer insights and, of course, there is the music.

Director Leslie Woodhead interviews Ray Brown Jr. (Ella's adopted son) and other talking heads including Jamie Cullum and Laura Mvula. Sally Evans-Darby's Jazz Journal online review suggests a high point is hearing sixteen year old Alexis Morrast singing A-Tisket, A-Tasket on the same Harlem Apollo Theater stage as did Ella back in 1934. Ella: Just One of Those Things will be screened at 7:00pm on Friday at Hexham's Forum Cinema.

Stanley Nelson's documentary features a host of names who worked with, knew or met Miles Dewey Davis...Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter featured on seminal recordings with Miles, all have their say. Jimmy Heath and Quincy Jones offer insight, so too Juliette Gréco, Lee Konitz and the man once touted as successor to the great man, Wallace Roney. Writers/biographers Stanley Crouch, Ashley Kahn and Quincy Troupe contribute their expertise as does nephew Vince Wilburn Jr.. Miles: Birth of the Cool opens at the Tyneside Cinema on Friday (8:30pm), further screenings include Saturday (5:45pm) and Sunday (3:00pm). Later in the month (Monday 28) the recently opened Everyman Cinema on Grey Street, Newcastle will show the film at eight o'clock.      
Russell 

No comments :

Blog Archive