Bebop Spoken There

Joe Alterman: ''All I wanted to do growing up was to sound like Erroll Garner playing "Poor Butterfly." I thought that was the coolest sound I'd ever heard.'' (DownBeat November, 2026)

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

19,105 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 969 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Nov. 14) 39.

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

From This Moment On

November

Sun 15: Lianne Carroll: Jazz Vocal Weekend Workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 9:30am-5:00pm. Day 2/2. SOLD OUT!
Sun 15: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ The Waiting Room, Eaglescliffe. 7:00pm. £48.18 (to include dinner); £17.43 (concert only).
Sun 15: Sarah Gillespie & Chris Montague @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £18.00.
Sun 15: Liane Carroll @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £14.00., £12.00., £7.00. Solo performance. SOLD OUT!

Mon 16: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Jacob Egglestone, Paul Grainger, Joe Deans.
Tue 17: Grammy Season (Laubrock/Seabrook/Lovato/Rainey) @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 8:00pm. JNE.

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Papa G’s Troves @ Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. Free (donations).
Thu 19: Marina Josephina @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. £10.60; £10.60.; £8.50 Early Bird.

Fri 20: Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion: The Music of Duke Ellington @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Customs House Big Band @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm.

Sat 21: Pete Tanton Duo @ Awesome Frank’s, West Jesmond Metro Station, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £8.00.
Sat 21: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ The Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm. £18.00.

Monday, November 25, 2019

CD Review: Kelley Johnson - Something Good

Kelley Johnson (vocals); John Hensen (piano); Michael Glynn (bass); Kendrick Scott (drums) + Jay Thomas (sop sax/tenor sax/trumpet: tks 4,5,8).
(Review by Lance).

Kelley Johnson's yet another singer mining the GASbook and she seems to have struck gold going by DownBeat's assessment "...wisps of Carmen McRae's ginger snap, Betty Carter's yawning reach, Anita O'Day's feline purr and Nancy Wilson's crystaline enunciation." 

Wow! unlike DB I'm lost for words - crystaline enunciation - I'll file that one for future reference!

So, take the above as read, I'll merely add that it's a rather fine album. Karen Carpenter singing Goodbye To Love has long been one of my favourites and I'd often imagined it being sung by a jazzier singer. Well, Kelley steps up to the plate and, maybe she didn't hit it out of the park like Karen did in her own genre, but it didn't strike out either. The scat choruses certainly had that ginger snap and, if nothing else, KJ has moved the song into the repertoire and it will be interesting to see if any other jazz peeps take her lead.

Let's Do it brings in a few of the lesser known verses by Cole and it has a lovely swing to it.

No mistake, Ms. Johnson is the business and it's not just her crystaline enunciation that makes her a contender but also the feeling she has for the lyric, that ability to get inside a song, the sense that the title sums it up - Something Good.

And there's also something good going on around her. Piano, bass and drums - Kendrick Scott! - absolutely solid with Hansen, who collaborated with Johnson on the arrangements, superb. The icing comes in the form of Jay Thomas who not only blows tenor and sop sax but also chips in on trumpet - do the union pay him triple scale?. 
Lance

Anyone Can Whistle; Goodbye to Love; You Do Something To Me; Lullaby of Birdland; Let's Do It; Some Other Time; Tip Toe Gently; Unforgetable; You For Me; Something Good.

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