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Bebop Spoken There

Francis Tulip: ''Music speaks louder than words''. (Jazzwise, June 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

17,550 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 514 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (June 28).

From This Moment On ...

JULY 2025

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Hopper-Watson Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 8:00pm (7:30pm doors). £10.00. + £1.00. bf.
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 10: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Soloists, Orchestras & Hot Fives.
Thu 10: Side Café Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 11: Paul Skerritt Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church, Cockton Hill Road, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00. A Bishop Auckland Jazz promotion. New venue (second Friday in the month)!
Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Beehive, Earsdon NE25 0SZ. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Fiona Finden Jazz Express @ Flash House Brewery, North Shields NE30 1DS. 8:00pm. Free.

Sat 12: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 12 noon. Free. Vieux Carré Jazzmen (12 noon); Rendezvous Jazz (1:00pm); Mississippi Dreamboats (2:00pm); Classic Swing (3:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (4:00pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sat 12: Making Music Seminar: Latin American Music v. Music of Latin America @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 1:00pm. £15.00. (£5.00. online). Jason Holcomb, Alix Shepherd & Carlos Luis Rivera.
Sat 12: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Lovaine Community Garden, North Shields. 7:00pm (doors 6:40pm). £6.00. Limited places, booking essential (via the Community Garden website). BYOF&D.
Sat 12: Hot Club du Nord @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Hall Two.
Sat 12: Sleep Suppressor @ Repas 7 by Night, Berwick. 8:00pm.
Sat 12: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle.8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 13: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 11:00am. Free. Trilogy of Four (11:00am); East Coast Jazzmen (12:10pm); Delta Prophets Trio (1:20pm); House of the Black Gardenia (2:30pm); Mouth of the Tyne All Stars (3:40pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sun 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. ‘The Bandstand Sessions’.
Sun 13: Julie Dexter @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:30pm (doors). £20.00. ‘The Cluny Matinee Jazz Club’.
Sun 13: ’58 Jazz Collective, Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 2:00pm. Tea Dance. SOLD OUT! A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 13: Ferg Kilsby @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Luis Verde (alto sax); Ben Lawrence (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Hirst (drums).
Sun 13: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Sloth Racket @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ Hardwick Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ The Story, Mount Oswald, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.

Tue 15: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Sluice. Tel: 0191 237 3697. 12:30pm. ‘July Jazz Barbecue’. Tickets: £15.00.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ Hackworth Park, Shildon, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ The Witham, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Julian Lage Trio @ 1856 Exchange, North Shields. 7:30pm . Lage (guitar); Jorge Roeder (double bass); Joey Barron (drums).
Tue 15: Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra @ The Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.

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

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Tonight's Blue Note: The Fabulous Fats Navarro Vol. 2

One of the earlier Blue Notes, it has a lot of fond memories for me not least because of the presence of Wardell Gray - my first saxophone hero! Back in the day when Wardell and Dexter were tearing it up on Central Avenue blowing The Chase, going by the recorded evidence, my preference was for Wardell's lighter, more subtle, approach. 

Of course this was before Dexter  Gordon's resurgence when most tenor sax players were swept aside by his overpowering hands-on attack. However, by this time, Wardell had gone to a finer place but not without leaving behind a significant legacy, of which this LP forms a small part.


Also on the date was Allan Eager, one of the most underrated of the white tenor players (Brew Moore was another). Eager had a very light tone - a fore runner of Warne Marsh? If he'd dedicated his life to music who knows but that Eager could have been The Man! However, apart from his heroin addiction which was par for the course in those days, Eager drifted off into other pursuits. Ski/riding instructor, racing car driver and, it was said, gigolo.

I saw Eager at a North Sea Festival where he played fine and at a club near Covent Garden where he didn't. It was empty and, to quote Ronnie Scott, "The bouncers weren't chucking them out they were chucking them in". On this album he offers the same contrast to Wardell as Wardell did to Dexter.

On trumpet is Fats Navarro who never made a bad record and, alongside  him, another trumpet man, Howard McGhee. The record brings together two of the greatest bebop trumpet players of the late 1940s. Dizzy may have won the polls but, trust me, he was in a photo finish with these two whilst Miles,  must have thought about taking up astronomy. Listen to them blowing Double Talk - has there ever been two trumpet players trading choruses like this?
Lance
Tadd Dameron Septet: Fats Navarro (trumpet); Wardell Gray, Allan Eager (tenor saxes); Tadd Dameron (piano); Curley Russell (bass); Kenny Clarke (drums); Chano Pozo (bongo).
----- 
McGee-Navarro Boptet: Fats Navarro, Howard McGhee (trumpets); Ernie Henry (alto sax); Milt Jackson (piano/vibes); Curley Russell (bass); Kenny Clarke (drums).

4 comments :

Steve Andrews said...

Fats Navarro - my absolute favourite modern jazz trumpet player! I "got" Fats years before I "got" Dizzy; I think it's because he is, on the one hand, so "hot" - he never flags or coasts in his choruses, but at the same time he's so melodic. By the way, I do get Diz…...it just took me a while, and, of course, when I was a kid I was deeply fascinated by Bird, not some trumpet player who happened to be on the record, too!

Steve T said...

Dizzy claimed Fats was the best of the bebop trumpeters, though I think it was a bit like SinAtra saying Tony Bennett was the best of the crooners.
In what way is this better than vol 1 Lance? A significantly more expensive item.

Lance said...

A) Because I don't have Volume 1, and B) Wardell Gray isn't on Volume 1. Admitedly Sonny Rollins is on Volume 1 but it was a very young Sonny.

David Brownlow said...

'Fabulous' Fats Navarro - aptly named ! What a player - great tone,imaginative ideas, great long lines,seemingly effortlessly soaring up into the trumpet stratosphere, too good for Bird's Quintet.
Lance, you have him playing on BSH - "Things we did last summer" with a JATP group - well worth another listen.......

from Dave B.

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