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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18018 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 339 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (May 7).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Tue 13: ???

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Recital (stage 2): Leah Kirk (voice) @ The Band Room, Music Studios, Assembly Lane, Newcastle University. 3:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Tannery jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Wed 14: Jerron Paxton @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £24.20. Excellent country blues multi-instrumentalist.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. BACK IN BUSINESS, all welcome!

Thu 15: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: The Greatest in Jazz - Guitarists.
Thu 15: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 15: New Ways of Moving in the Counterworlds @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). John Garner & John Pope.

Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Sophie Speed with the Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ Longframlington Memorial Hall. 7:00pm (doors). Tickets: £12.00. from 01665 570984.
Fri 16: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £10.00.
Fri 16: Peter Donegan & Anthony Donegan @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. ‘Lonnie Donegan - The Stories’.

Sat 17: Teresa Watson Band @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sat 17: The Society Quartet @ Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Tel: 0191 500 9494. £26.00 (inc. two course meal). Line-up: Jason Holcomb, Hannah Taylor, Alix Shepherd & Abbie Finn.
Sat 17: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 17: Archie Brown & the Young Bucks @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues, Americana etc.
Sat 17: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Rockabilly, Western swing etc.

Sun 18: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 12 noon-2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 18: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 18: Ruth Lambert & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 18: Steve Summers Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 19: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 19: Lewis Watson Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

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, December 06, 2019

The Xhosa Cole Quartet @ the Lescar, Sheffield, - Dec. 4

Xhosa Cole (tenor sax), Jay Phelps (trumpet), James Owston (bass), Jim Bashford (drums).
(Review by Steve T)

When we arrived the queue was already out the door. Had it got round that, not only is he the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year, but now also confirmed as Best Newcomer at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards? It's so nice for them do something that improves our lives for a change.

Fresh from the ceremony the previous evening, he arrived with a crack chord-less quartet for a night of classic, cutting edge jazz.

His stall was set out straight off, his horn honking and squeaking, though wonderfully fluid and controlled; raw and real and it was clear any script was left at the door. Trane and Sonny Rollins were the first names to spring to mind.

Canadian trumpeter Jay Phelps held a note and held his own, taking it down then taking it slow before taking it up.

A bass solo from fellow BBC nominee James Owston, his nimble fingers all over his instrument, but bringing a heavy, thick sound and, together with Jim Bashford effortlessly switching it around on kit, keeping things as serious as your life, sax and trumpet blowing as the mood took them, sometimes together, sometimes alone, sometimes entwined.

References came thick and fast; too fast for me to figure them out and it deserved somebody more eloquent, with more knowledge of jazz than me to unpick the influences converging from several of jazz's golden ages: bebop, hard-bop, free jazz, Blue Note, all coalesced into something timeless.

Xhosa apologised for the squeaks attributing it to a new old mouthpiece but I'm not sure anybody objected; I certainly didn't.

A lovely, intelligent slow piece followed, Deep Blue written by Owston ahead of a beautiful version of Yesterdays, Xhosa sitting one out as Phelps built up to some sleazy blowing.        

The first set ended with Billie's Bounce to mark a forthcoming centenary for Bird, Xhosa acknowledging his influence and claiming him as the man that made it all happen; why he was there, why we were there.

Only now did I realise just how crammed the small room was, people standing behind the bar with the shutters down, others outside just listening.

Part two was more of the same, insomuch as it was raw and real with a far greater level of spontaneity than most so-called free jazz.

By way of acknowledgement, Ornette's Rambling followed before Monk's Reflections gave Phelps a break, Xhosa playing a sax intro, rhythm watching for a signal or just waiting for him to take the horn out of his mouth. Once he'd explored all the possibilities Owston took another assured solo with Bashford's light brushwork in support.

More acknowledgement of major influences: Clifford Brown and Sonny Rollins and Joshua Redman on a take of Darn That Dream before another Monk piece I missed the title of and didn't recognise.   

After a false start and some discussion between the two horn players, somebody asked if they even knew each other, to which they shook hands by way of introduction.

Sonny Rollins' Kiss and Run finished things off, Xhosa acknowledging the significance of one of the most brilliant musicians of C20th and the greatest living jazz artist (though I feel a Lance 'in my opinion' being snuck in, I think any living jazz artist would be embarrassed by any suggestion they're greater than Sonny). 

There really wasn't anything left to say.
Jez Matthews - mastered ceremonies with the same informed enthusiasm as last time we visited the Lescar - Jazz Venue of the Year 2018 in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards - and he must feel his life is charmed at the moment, with Matt Anderson next week and the North East's very own Zoë Gilby - 2019 Vocalist of the Year in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards - the following week.

But tonight all our Christmases came at once. 
Steve T

1 comment :

Ray Johnson (on F/b). said...

Crikey. It's years since I've been to the Lescar. Great venue.

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