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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

Wed 15: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 15: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 15: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 15: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session. TBC.

Thu 16: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 17: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ 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: Joe Steels Trio w. Graham Hardy @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. (inc. a welcome drink & table reservation). Book at: www.drinks@thepele.co.uk. A ‘Jazz at the Pele’ promotion.
Fri 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 17: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 18: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 18: Alter Ego + Jamie Toms/Graham Don Duo @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 18: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Repas 7 by Night, West St., Berwick TD15 1AS. 7:30pm. Free. Album launch gig.
Sat 18: Delta Prophets @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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.

Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 21: ???

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

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Album Review: Living In Shadows – Living In Shadows

Zoë Gilby (vocals); Andy Champion (bass, cello, keyboards, drums, programming); Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Edis (piano) + Graeme Wilson (ten sax track 1, bari sax track 7); George Milburn (mandolin track 2); Emma Fisk (violin track 5)

These performers are well known and much loved by many of us here in the North East (and beyond) but not in the shape of this band, Living In Shadows. This fine album began life in 2016, when Andy and Zoë decided to expand their creativity by making music 'that is in our hearts without concerning ourselves with what pigeon hole it needs to fit into' said Zoë. The result is an album of 8 original songs, influenced by pop, rock, and progressive rock, and just a tinge of jazz.

The songs concern love, relationships, domestic abuse, daydreams, dictatorships, Newcastle in the 1970's, and even the migration of birds. The lyrics are interesting and intelligent and the musicianship is skilled, appropriate for the themes, just as we expect from these experienced players. The general idea is said to be transition and movement throughout life but that description gives no indication of just how enjoyable and thought-provoking the music is in reality.

The album opens with For The Day, about the birds, strong piano chords with an 'airy' feel and the sax playing a swooping effect, the voice doubling and echoing, singing such words as 'in the haze, watch it while away, beating wing of change'.

Running Feet is fast as in running, the most jazz-like track, with multi-tracked vocals, possibly a migrant running to safety.

I especially enjoyed Try To Take It Twice (maybe not quite the right word for such a serious subject), which is about domestic abuse, the vocals are almost bitter, mocking and chant-like 'you left the light on, falling over,' with the music sounding like running feet, especially the agitated mandolin.

Sending Electricity is a quite sensuous song about communicating when separated, which is sung in a more intimate voice than on the other tracks.

Believe concerns daydreams and features Emma Fisk on violin and the voice is double tracked.

The Tunnel is the most fascinating of the songs. Zoë has chatted about this at gigs, relating how she had to perform songs in a railway tunnel during a jazz festival in Romania. This sounds positively dangerous to me, but Zoë has managed to turn it into a song about a long-forgotten train on the railways of the past.  The lyrics are full of atmosphere 'drip-dropping dampness cries, holding the past it lasts for a lifetime, brakes screeching, I'm alive'.

Postcards concerns dictatorship, based on a book, Alone In Berlin by Hans Fallada. The voice is ironic, 'a poisoned pen letter, to make you feel better?' and the bass and baritone sax play fast and sound menacing.

Smoke & Mirrors This final track is the longest at nearly 10 minutes and it was commissioned by Jazz North East to commemorate their 50th birthday in 2016. It was inspired by the film Get Carter and concerns  some aspects of life in 1970's Newcastle, mainly to do with corrupt property deals, naming no names, and the destruction of buildings of historical value. The comprehensive lyrics are printed on the CD cover, and are well worth reading, such lines as 'demolish ruin castles, replaced with towers of plastic' The music is appropriate, a jazzy piano, drums and bass sequence, a sad-sounding guitar, a very angry voice, ending with the final assertion 'what you see is what you're getting'.

All tracks were written and arranged by Zoë Gilby and Andy Champion, except track 3 by Zoë, Andy and Mark Williams and track 8 by Zoë, Andy and Roy Budd

The tracks For The Day and Sending Electricity have already been issued as singles. These have been played on BBC Radio Newcastle and on media outlets in the USA. The album is available from Dec. 4 as a digital download, a CD, and as a vinyl (limited edition) copy. See www.livinginshadows.com

Ann Alex

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