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Bebop Spoken There

Trevor Mires: ''My mum is a Dean Martin fan: I'm not, so I would grab my skateboard and get out of the house whenever I heard "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime." ". (Jazzwise, April 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

17957 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 278 of them this year alone and, so far, 34 this month (April 14).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Sun 20: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 20: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 20: Spilt Milk @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 20: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: C.A.L.I.E @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 21: Newcastle Record Fair @ Copthorne Hotel, Newcastle. 10:00am. Going in search of the Buddy Bolden cylinder…
Mon 21: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. Coquetdale Jazz.

Wed 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 23: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 23: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED!

Thu 24: Mary Coughlan @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £33.80. Blues, jazz etc.
Thu 24: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT! Duo performance.
Fri 25: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums).
Fri 25: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton Mill. 6:00-9:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Fri 25: Struggle Buggy @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. Rhythm & blues.
Fri 25: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £20.30., £18.00. All-star big band.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums). An Opus 4 Jazz Club event.

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

Monday, May 11, 2020

CD Review: Samoa Wilson w. Jim Kweskin Band - (I Just Want to be) Horizontal.

There's a real twenties/thirties feel to this that manages to blend classic jazz with just a suggestion of Americana resulting in as delightful an album as you're likely to hear either side of the Mason/Dixon Line.

Bessie, Billie and Ella rub shoulders with The sons of the Pioneers, Something Smith and the Redheads - even Danny Kaye - who all inspired a lot of the material. Samoa also sings the verse to some not overworked standards. However, the most intriguing number is the title track originally recorded in 1946 by the Pat Flowers Band with vocal by Bunty Pendleton in what was, amazingly, her only known recording.

Samoa Wilson has the ideal voice for it - New Orleans meets Nashville in NYC. It's raunchy and yet sultry on the ballads.

Leader Kweskin, 80-year-old when it was recorded and better known as the leader of a Jim Kweskin Jug Band, adds his own vocal chops to Samoa's on a couple of numbers as well as playing rhythm guitar and some fingerpicking solos that were fingerpickin' good!

Mike Davis is a name familiar to those who attended last year's Classic Jazz Party in the Village Inn and he's equally impressive here. Lichtman has a lovely, fluid clarinet sound and Paloma Ohm plays alto with an almost Johnny Hodges-like grace. Drummer Brown, the blurb tells us, worked in his own band with Samoa for two years playing standards and torch songs in a mob joint in Boston, lighting up happy hour. But why am I singling out individuals? It's a band that gels and all combine to make this an album that will appeal to fans of several different genres.
Lance
Available June 12 (Kingswood Records, LLC).

Samoa Wilson (vocals); Jim Kweskin (vocals/rhythm guitar); Titus Vollmer (guitars/ukulele); Mike Davis (trumpet); Paloma Ohm (alto sax); Dennis Lichtman  (clarinet/fiddle/mandolin/alto sax); Sonny Barbato (piano/accordion); Matthew Berlin (bass); Jeff Brown (drums) + Sean Read & Mattie Read Clarke (backing vocals on At Ebb Tide)

After You've Gone; (I Just Want to be) Horizontal; Trust in Me; I Cried For You; The Candy Man; Inch Worm; That's Life I Guess; Until the Real Thing Comes Along; Me, Myself, and I; Our Love is Here to Stay; Kitchen Man; At Ebb Tide, Lover Come Back to Me; Easy to Love; He Ain't Got Rhythm; I Wished on the Moon; Someone Turned the Moon Upside Down.

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