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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

Tonight's Blue Note: Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder

Lee Morgan (trumpet); Joe Henderson (tenor); Barry Harris (piano); Bob Cranshaw (bass); Billy Higgins (drums).

Reputed to be the best selling Blue Note album up to 1964 and, for all we know, it possibly still is. The title track also charted as a single the funky groove a natural for the jukebox/disco market and tailor made for shaking your nether regions about. The solos are pretty good too.

Despite this success, I suspect that the other tracks hold more lasting interest for the jazzophile. Totem Pole has Morgan in fine form matched all the way by Henderson - the two really were a well matched pair and what about Barry Harris? One of the greats who is still around. This brings back fond memories of hearing him at Pizza Express a few years ago. Billy Higgins drives intuitively catching the constantly shifting moods of the piece which, like all five tracks is a Morgan original.

Gary's Notebook - inspired by a friend of Lee's who apparently was forever doodling. "A basic guy but kind of deep" is how the trumpet player described his friend. It's a blues and maybe it is kind of deep but in the nicest possible way. 

Boy What a Night - a funky 12/8 blues - Henderson is incredible not least in his entry where he plays the same note about 12 times and yet manages to make each one sound different! Talking about making an explosive entry, Morgan's near enough matches his famed one on The Messengers' Moanin' that Russell has mentioned elsewhere.

Hocus Pocus - Harris informed Morgan (the composer) that the changes were near enough the same as Mean to Me. A straight ahead swinger. I'm sure Cranshaw would be on double bass but it sounds like bass guitar to me. Whatever, he does the business.
Lance

1 comment :

Steve T said...

The title track was one of the dodgiest of all the jazz tracks played on the UK's Acid Jazz dance scene of the eighties and nineties.
As you know, Blue Note went big on jazz-funk in the seventies and it was said that Blackbyrd then Ronnie Laws' Pressure Sensitive were the biggest selling albums on the label.

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