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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17777 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 98 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Feb.8).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 15: Elkie Brooks @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘The Long Farewell Tour’.
Sat 15: Milne Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 16: MOBO Song @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 12 noon. Free, performances on the concourse. Line-up inc. Jazz Attack (on stage time TBC) & Jambone (12:20pm).
Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: BBC Introducing NE X MOBO Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Jambone, Knats, Rivkala, SwanNek.
Sun 16: The Shayo Experience @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 16: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. .

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Matt Forster Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones - 1975.
Thu 20: Renegade Brass Band @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 20: Orange Claw Hammer + Peony @ The Globe, Newcastle.7:30pm. Orange Claw Hammer play Captain Beefheart.
Thu 20: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Featuring special guest Zoë Gilby.

Fri 21: JazzMain @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. TBC.
Fri 21: Emma Rawicz w. Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

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, February 05, 2020

Alice Grace & Paul Edis @ Jazz Cafe Mezzanine - Feb 5

Alice Grace (vocals); Paul Edis (piano)
(Review by Russell/Photos courtesy of Mike Tilley)

George Shearing, Kenny Garrett, Freddie Hubbard, three seemingly disparate composers with which to open a set. Today's duo on the Mezzanine in Newcastle Arts Centre can handle all kinds of material and so it was that a capacity audience heard Lullaby of BirdlandShe Waits for the New Sun and Little Sunflower

All seats were occupied long before the one o'clock start and little wonder given that this afternoon's concert performance reunited Alice Grace and Paul Edis following their hugely successful first gig working together as a duo in November last year. Horace Silver's Sister Sadie featured a Paul Edis piano solo which matched the composer's effort when he appeared many moons ago at the Newcastle Jazz Festival!  


Alice Grace sang Trudy Kerr's lyrics to Dave Holland's Dream of the Elders and followed up with You Don't Know What Love Is. The art of jazz singing is alive and well in the hands - should that be vocal chords? - of adopted Geordie Ms Grace. A light yet commanding approach, inventive, a wonderful elision of the straight lyric and magical, musical scatting beyond compare. 

The full house hung around for a second set of GASbook to contemporary numbers, a set which opened with the combined talents of Norma Winstone, John Taylor and Alice Grace. A vocal dexterity not dissimilar to Winstone and a love of Taylor's (and Kenny Wheeler's) compositions place Ms Grace at the forefront of today's vocalists capable of singing the GASbook and more contemporary material. 

Scat to die for on If I Should Lose You underpinned by Edis' walking left hand, Midnight Sun (comp. Hampton & Burke) with AG namechecking Ella, Everybody's Song but My Own (comp. K. Wheeler) then, as the three o'clock finish approached, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams or, as Edis quipped, Wrap Your Dreams in Troubles! It had been a wonderful couple of hours or so, Grace and Edis should do it again, after all a capacity audience tells a story.  
Russell

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

Alice Grace & Paul Edis what a jazz duo! an absolute delight, we live in a contemporary world that has some good stuff that was displayed by Alice and Paul, but an ultra sound stereo injection of the GASB juice gave the second half real class, midnight sun, you don't know what love is, and if I should lose you, had me saying YES! YES! YES!, I really can't help myself, men with white coats will one day take me away to a place that grown ups seldom understand.
I spent the first 25 years of my life living in London, and I have to that Alice Grace a fellow Londoner really hit the nail on the head
about London, the North East is far better, I hope that Paul Edis has a fruitful time in London, but a short one, Jazz in the north east is poorer without him.

BRIAN SHINE

JERRY said...

I've been to the original Jazz Cafe before, but never to the mezzanine: a great venue. especially for a gig of this kind. As for the music, I agree with all the above (Russell's review and the comment)- both sets were fantastic but, for me, the stand-out number was Sister Sadie. Unforgettable!
JERRY

Patti said...

All of the above, plus Russell's review - I'm adding my agreement. Aren't we lucky to live in Geordieland - I say that as a transplanted Southerner! And aren't we doubly lucky to have amazing performers like Alice and Paul - with venues like this right here.

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