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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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

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. SOLD OUT!
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.

Sat 25: Boys of Brass @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 25: New '58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson's Wharf, Hartlepool. 6:30pm (doors). Free. A Burns' Night event. Jazz, swing, funk, soul, blues etc.
Sat 25: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 25: Jack & Jay’s Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues.

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, November 01, 2019

Reflections...

(Reflections by Lance/ Photo of Greg Abate courtesy of Malcolm Sinclair)

Is this the end of jazz as I  know it? The CDs that arrive daily from various points on the globe make me wonder if I'm not on the edge of a personal jazz Armageddon. 

Some albums I find difficult to identify as jazz at all although I suppose it is. Improvisation, originality and - most certainly - the sound of surprise is there and yet I find it difficult to equate it with the music that drew me to jazz in the first place.

The thrill of discovering the Eddie Condon, Muggsy Spanier bands. The Armstrong All-stars, Ellington, Basie, Goodman, Herman and, at home, the big bands of Ted Heath, Dankworth, Vic Lewis. Discovering Bird and Diz, the Jazz Messengers, Stan Getz, Tubby Hayes and so many more. Somehow, for me, the present has yet to catch up with the past. 

Many of the albums I receive are fantastic and I rave over them but, in the cold light of morning, I think, will I ever play these albums over and over again like I did with: Mingus Ah Um, Concert by the Sea, Ella Sings Gershwin (duo w. Ellis Larkins), Art Pepper Plus Eleven, Songs For Swinging Lovers, Jazz at Oberlin, Atomic Mr Basie, Historically Speaking the Duke? 

Will I ever hear anything to top the Newcastle City Hall concerts by Basie, Ellington, Hampton, Herman, Kenton, JATP, Gillespie, Brubeck, Ella, Oscar, Armstrong, Ory, MJQ, Miles, Maynard and so many more? Who knows? 

I'd like to think so but probably not. Admirable as the jazz courses at colleges across the land are - the end products, at a technical level, are greater by far than anything produced by, say Lester, Louis even Dizzy and most of the other jazz greats - but who can identify this new breed from hearing just one or two notes?
 
Nobody, and that's what's missing from so much of today's jazz. Or maybe it's me and I just need new ears!

Correction! Next Thursday (Nov. 7), at the Black Swan Arts Centre in Newcastle  JNE present Greg Abate with the Paul Edis Trio and thus lay waste to all of the above! Greg is the real deal do not miss it and, if you want more - and you will - Greg and Paul play a duo set at the Gala Theatre in Durham the following lunchtime. These are a couple of gigs you will miss at your peril - be warned! 
Lance.

3 comments :

shepherdlass said...

I know he's by now one of the old guard but I believe Kenny Garrett is a unique voice, which is probably why Miles worked with him so much in latter years

Chris K said...

Come on Lance, this must be a wind up? Trying to get some more traffic going on BSH?

A proper "youth of today" would just smile and post LOL and few emojis in response ;)

Still, since I'm not youth any more, I'll have a go, as I'm familiar with this line from my kids when I tell them that bands today aren't a patch on when I was a lad : Mahavishnu, Nucleus, Hendrix, Soft Machine etc - Steve T knows the score.

After some years of active listening to "new" music (post 2000?) I can make a few of my own (personal and flawed) observations. I guess these won't change what Lance hears - this stuff is all personal and a unique product of our own individual musical journey and history.

1. "Jazz" is wider, deeper and more "developed" now than in any previous era - far more diverse than the era of the one true authentic way of swing/bop (with its own British strand) so loved (justifiably of course) by Lance;

2. we have unrivalled and privileged access to live and recorded music now, and even if 1. (above) isn't true, then it seems like it to me ;

3. the changed nature of the music industry and streaming doesn't lend itself to a small roster of jazz "superstars" and heroes (and also makes it darn' difficult to make a living for musicians);

4. Lance may not recognise them, but even to my sceptical ears there are highly distinctive and unmistakable voices today, even playing in and visiting the North East! From the new wave of (under-5Os?) on the world stage I give you Tigran, Adam Baldych, Mehldau, Kamasi, Christian Scott, Yazz Ahmed, Snarky Puppy, Marcus Gilmore, Simcock, Avishai Cohen (x2!). I'm confident there are jazz listeners out there in abundance who could pass the two note test with these artists!

If he needs an introduction to some distinctive voices, then perhaps tomorrow's Jazz Record Requests special on ECM's 50th birthday (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009zpp) would be a good reminder of some other"two-note" masters - Garbarek, Metheny and Jarrett?

Anyway, Lance, thanks as ever for the provocation, and my realisation that there is more than enough great music out there for all of us to enjoy. I hope you find what you're looking for in your pile of CDs, but remember that your first love is the most intense, and you're asking a lot to re-live that thrill again!

Chris K

Gordon Solomon said...

I know what you mean Lance. Thanks to the excellent college run jazz courses we now have a superb pool of jazz musicians, who as you say, are technically superior to the past players who you and I grew up with. But to me there is a lack of uniqueness and individualism that earmarked players such as Pee Wee Russell, Wild Bill Davison, Jack Teagarden, Benny Carter, Charlie Parker and many more. Obviously there are a few exceptions but I'm sure that you and I could identify literally dozens of musicians from the period of which you speak, simply because nobody else played like them!
Gordon Solomon.

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