Bebop Spoken There

Ludovic Beier (Django Festival Allstars): ''Manouche means 'free man,' and gypsies have been travelers since they migrated west from India to Europe.'' (DownBeat March, 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

18383 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 247 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Mar. 17 ), 57

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, November 09, 2020

Annie Ross - Movie star

Fans of the late Annie Ross  might be interested to know that she was in a 1972 British horror film entitled  Straight On Till Morning. Pretty much a B movie by all accounts. She plays a slightly older (she was 42 at the time) boozy girlfriend of this evil young lad protagonist who ends up killing his dog and another girlfriend (not Annie, happily). The largely jazz infused score was written by Roland Shaw and included a theme song co-written (lyrics) by Annie which she also sings throughout the film. Other British jazz greats, Ronnie Scott and Kenny Wheeler are heard soloing as well. For these reasons alone, make the film worth a look.

I saw it recently on a UK channel called Talking Pictures (talkingpictures.co.uk) which shows many films like this. Not sure how accessible this film would be outside of the UK but defo worth  googling. It is also available on Blu-ray.

Frank Griffiths

1 comment :

Lance said...

Thanks Frank. Talking Pictures repeat just about everything so it will come round again I'm sure.

One film I'm constantly looking out for is Face the Music a.k.a The Velvet Glove. Alex Nicol plays an American trumpet player in London for a gig at the London Palladium who gets involved in a murder.

It's not a great film but Nicol's trumpet playing is ghosted by Kenny Baker - need I say more?

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