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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

17719 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 39 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Jan. 15).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sun 19: Glenn Miller Orchestra UK @ Glasshouse, Gateshead. 3:00pm. ‘Glenn Miller & the Rat Pack Era’.
Sun 19: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 19: Spilt Milk @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:15-7:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 19: Tenement Jazz Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 19: Nick Ross Orchestra @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm.
Sun 19: Freight Train (Tobin/Noble/Clarvis) @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 19: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

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.
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: 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.

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, April 24, 2020

CD Review: Gabriele Heller – Nightshifts


Gabriele Heller (vocals, live sound mixes, percussion); Steve Glendinning (guitar, percussion); Wolfgang Weileder (guitar on 3 tracks).

This is such a good CD that I felt compelled to play it twice before writing the review and I enjoyed it even more the second time. The songs are a heady mix of cabaret tinged songs and jazz which are intriguing, disturbing, compassionate and even amusing by turns and always interesting. Steve as always does a grand job of appropriate accompaniment and Gabi, an experienced improvising actor, writer and teacher, interprets the lyrics with feeling and skill.


Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7 are the work of Heller and Glendinning, with poetry from Graham Mort on track 7;
Weileder contributes guitar to Heller's lyrics on tracks 2,4,and 8; track 9 gives us Heller's voice unaccompanied; track 6 is a medley of Heller's words with those of other writers; and listeners will of course recognise Billie Holiday's song at track 10, and the immortal words of Meeropol's Strange Fruit bring the album to a close.

Broken is a list of many broken things, including broken hearts, dreams, shoes and ankles, with the recording of the speaking clock suggesting broken sleep: indeed many of the songs have the suggestion of insomnia and unpleasant 'nightshifts'.

 The agitated vocals of Run ('baby run') repeated many times make the listener wonder what is being run from, and the guitar seems to run along; the title track seems to be about an unpleasant bout of insomnia, sung to a rumbling heartbeat sound and fragmented guitar, yet ending with a final letting go. Tomorrow Starts Today is a more gentle love song; Wallflower is a party scene with a soundtrack of voices, and the wallflower telling us that 'you know the way they shake their beautiful bodies'. 

One of the best tracks is number 6, a medley of songs about boats and ships and migrants who are desperately trying to escape, with clever electronic sounds producing 'water' noises; Electricity concerns that energy in all its forms, which suggested to me that someone was awake listening to household electrical noises; True Love is a lively request for love, amusing, with a steady clapping rhythm and Gabi's very adventurous, unusual scat. My Tears is sung a capella, a hymn-like tune with disturbing lyrics about 'dreaming to be dead' weighed down with heavy stones.

Listeners will be familiar with the last 2 tracks, track 10, Billie Holiday's plea for love, and then Strange Fruit, which manges to bring out the horror of the 'burning flesh' and 'scent of magnolia', with eerie guitar sounds and odd bell-like percussion.

A veritable tour de force. The album is available from April 2020.

 I'd like to see a gig featuring these songs when social distancing ends. And yes, the album is dedicated 'For all doctors, nurses and health workers, who work day and night to save our lives'. The real Nightshifters
 Ann Alex

Track list 1/ Broken Silence 2/ Run 3/ Nightshifts 4/ Tomorrow Starts Today 5/ Wallflower 6/Hope, My Ship, Little Boat 7/ Electricity 8/ True Love 9/ My Tears 10/ Tell Me More And More And Then Some 11/ Strange Fruit

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