Bebop Spoken There

Christian McBride: ''We knew back in the day that Emmet [Cohen] had it.'' (DownBeat July, 2026)

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

18699 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 573 of them this year alone and, so far this month (July 11) 27

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

From This Moment On

July

Wed 15: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 15: Willington Big Brass Bash @ Town Park, Willington. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Wed 15: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Café Needle’s Eye, Promenade, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea NE64 6XE. 6:00pm. Free. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.
Wed 15: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 15: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 15: Side Café Orkestar @ The Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.00 (£11.00. adv.); £12.00 concs (£8.00. concs adv.).

Thu 16: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 16: Spennymoor Big Brash Bash @ Jubilee Park, Spennymoor. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Thu 16: Coxhoe Little Brass Bash @ Village Green (Pit Wheel). 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Thu 16: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Lollo Rosso, Morpeth. 7:30pm. Free. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.
Thu 16: Stevie Jay Duo @ Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. Free. Julija Jacenaite & Steve Glendinning.
Thu 16: DK Harrell @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £20.00 + bf. USA blues.
Thu 16: Paul Skerritt @ Angels' Share, St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle NE2 2SX. 8:00pm. Free. Booking advised (0191 200 1975). Skerritt w. backing tapes.

Fri 17: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 17: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 17: Seaham Big Brass Bash @ Terrace Green, Seaham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Fri 17: Newton Aycliffe Big Brass Bash @ Town Park, Newton Aycliffe. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Fri 17: Ray Stubbs R&B Allstars @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Old Black Cat Jazz Club.
Fri 17: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm.
Fri 17: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Repas 7 by Night, Berwick. 8:00pm. Free. Lollo Rosso, Morpeth. 8:00pm. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.

Sat 18: Streets of Brass @ Market Place, Durham City. 10:00am-4:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands.
Sat 18: Brass Boat Cruise @ Boathouse, Elvet Bridge Jetty, Durham City. Departures at 10:30am, 12 noon, 1:30pm, 3:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £5.00 (all prices + bf). Durham Brass Festival. Various bands.
Sat 18: Party in the Park @ Wharton Park, Durham City. 5:00-9:00pm. Free. Durham Brass Festival. Multi-bill of street brass bands. Entrance o/s Durham Railway Station (Northbound platform).
Sat 18: Zoë Gilby & Dean Stockdale @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm.
Sat 18: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00-9:00pm. £10.00.
Sat 18: Tyne Valley Big Band + Revolutionaires @ Pelton Community Centre. 7:00pm. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 18: Dale Storr @ The Straw Yard, The Barracks, Berwick. 7:30pm. £15.38. Solo piano.
Sat 18: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Red Lion Inn, Alnmouth. 8:30pm. Free. Lollo Rosso, Morpeth. 8:00pm. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.

Sun 19: Brass Boat Cruise @ Boathouse, Elvet Bridge Jetty, Durham City. Departures at 10:30am, 12 noon, 1:30pm, 3:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £5.00 (all prices + bf). Durham Brass Festival. Various bands.
Sun 19: Jacob Egglestone Trio @ The Bandstand, The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free.
Sun 19: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bishop Auckland Town hall. 2:00pm. £7.00 (inc. bf). A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 19: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Table reservations (0191 261 8000). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 19: Michael Young Trio @ Engine Room, Sunderland. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 19: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 19: SwanNek @ The Bandstand, The Sele, Hexham. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 19: Nomade Swing: Dos Guitars Trio @ Twelve 06, High St., Newbiggin-by-the-Sea NE64 6DR. 3:00pm. Free. Luco Allievi, Alessandro Brizio, Mariano Gallizio. ‘A Journey Through Swing, Gypsy Jazz, Soul & Pop’.
Sun 19: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 19: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sun 19: Dale Storr: The Sounds of New Orleans @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Solo piano. POSTPONED!

Mon 20: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 20: Mejedi Owusu w. Francis Tulip Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 21: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Joe Deans.

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Tonight's Blue Note: Grant Green - Idle Moments

Joe Henderson (tenor sax); Bobby Hutcherson (vibes ); Grant Green (guitar); Duke Pearson (piano); Bob Cranshaw (bass); Al Harewood (drums).

The title track is aptly named - Idle Moments - it's so laid back you could almost fall asleep but, if you did, you'd miss some really sensitive playing. You've never heard Joe Henderson blowing like this - he makes Lester Young sound like John Coltrane.  Hutcherson brings the warmth to his vibes that Milt Jackson just misses, brilliant though Milt is. Grant, naturally, is outstanding.

Things waken up with Jean De Fleur kicked off by Grant who has taken Charlie Christian's innovations 20 years along the line. Henderson is in his more familiar hard-blowing mode. Hutch reminds Milt he's the number one contender and the track fades out in sweet surrender to the music.

John Lewis' Django offers an alternative to the original version by the Modern Jazz Quartet. This one's a bluesy shuffle and loses nothing by comparison - Duke Pearson, like Paul Edis, the other day, manages to insert the same descending motif referred to. Grant Green hints at it. Since I heard Paul play it, and I checked it on MJQ's Fontessa I can't get the phrase out of my head and I'm beginning to wonder if I'm just imaging it or if I do I keep hearing it in every number!

Duke Pearson's Nomad is the out and out swinger. Green lays his cards on the table and, musically, ups the ante which is a dangerous thing to do when the guy taking the next solo also just happened to compose the tune. You don't get beaten on your own tunes! I should have more Duke Pearson on the shelves.

A good album, possibly not the top rated Grant Green Blue Note, but it would interesting to hear what our other guitarists who are familiar with the album think and what their favourite GG album is.
YouTube link.
Lance.
at

2 comments :

Roly said...

I’ve always enjoyed Grant Green’s guitar playing on album tracks I’ve heard. The two vinyl albums I have at home are a good album ‘Born to be Blue’ under his name and a really great album ‘Search for the New Land’ under Lee Morgan’s name and with stellar company. These are good examples of his unique and instantly recognisable solo style. Free flowing, bluesy, melodic but with a distinctive warm but woody and edgy, biting sound that is perhaps due in part to the instrument, a non-cutaway Gibson L7 with the unique McCarty pick up.

Those older Gibson models often had a unique, woody sound. Another great guitarist, for example, is Rene Thomas who used a non-cutaway Gibson 150 with Charlie Christian pick up. His sound had a similar edge to it.

As regards this particular album I enjoyed it although I did find that first slow track rather long. Apart from that it’s great though. True to form Green is in that flowing trademark solo style but does minimal comping. He typically lays out deferring to the piano. I don’t think he would get many pianists saying he gets in the way.

He was one of the greats of the Blue Note era and for someone to have such an instantly recognisable signature style means a lot. You know its him in the first few notes and something about his soloing compels you to sit up and listen. Of the GG I’ve heard I would pick out ‘Search for the New Land’ as one to check out if you’ve not already got it.

Sunday, April 26, 2020 2:19:00 pm
Maurice Summerfield said...

Your review of this CD prompted me to listen to my Blue Note 4 CD set 'Grant Green Retrospective' 7243 5 40851 3A/B. This includes the track 'Django' from Idle Moments.

I always enjoyed Green's playing but usually in short doses as his main influences were jazz saxophonists. As a result his sound did not have the full and rich guitar sound of the 1950/1960's jazz guitar greats such as Kessel, Farlow, Ellis, Johnny Smith, Hall and Burrell.

I felt he was essentially a blues guitarist and although he featured on many excellent hard bop Blue Note recordings he did return almost exclusively to playing blues guitar in his later career. Of course he died too young at the age of 44. I can recommend Sharony Andrews Green's biography of Grant Green (Backbeat Books 1999).

Maurice Summerfield


Sunday, April 26, 2020 2:57:00 pm

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