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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

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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