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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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

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. SOLD OUT!
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: New '58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson's Wharf, Hartlepool. 6:30pm (doors). Free. A Burns' Night event. Jazz, swing, funk, soul, blues etc.
Sat 25: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Parish Hall, St Barnabas’ Church, Rowlands Gill. 7:30pm. £10.00. BYOB (tea & coffee available), raffle. Proceeds to St Barnabas’ Church. Performance feat. Shayo (vocals).
Sat 25: Jack & Jay’s Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues.

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, December 18, 2020

How I Became Addicted to Jazz. Miles Watson reflects ...

How did I get into jazz? I didn’t, it somehow got into me. Growing up in the '40s and '50s in a house where the wireless (radio) was always on, the popular music of the day was infiltrating my brain with the dance bands and record request programmes. I first heard Muggsy Spanier, Bunny Berigan and Fats Waller on Forces Requests, the word jazz was never mentioned it was all part of the pop culture.

At the end of the war my eldest brother bought a self-changing radiogram with his demob gratuity and every week would come back from town with an eclectic selection of 78s everything from grand opera to Spike Jones. My favourite pastime was playing the B side of the popular records, Fats Wallers Moppin’ & Boppin’Shortnin’ Bread and Dinah and Pee Wee Hunt’s Somebody Else Not Me, are still fondly remembered.

Saturday evenings in the Men’s Institute listening to the football results followed by Jazz Club with the likes of Harry Parry and Freddy Randall and later in the week listening at home with ear pressed up against the speaker to catch Kenny Baker’s Dozen on Let’s Settle for Music. By then I thought I knew what jazz was all about after buying Rex Harris’ Penguin book on jazz but really the eye opener came on a visit to the Oxford Galleries to hear Freddy Randall who’s 7 piece band just about blew the roof off with not a piece of music in sight.

The direction of my interest was now set for life, listening to local and national bands and record buying. Then the highlight of my life, the appearance of Louis Armstrong at the City Hall. Like a lot of others there that night the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and the 25 bob for the ticket was the best spend of my life. The succeeding concerts by the legends and the newer stars of jazz just embedded the music that far into my soul that even marriage, family, mortgage, work and other interests could never dispel. In my 85th year and as Duke said “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” my love for the music is still as much alive in me as it was 70 years ago.

Miles Watson

4 comments :

Lance said...

Great stuff Miles and how similar are my own early memories. Louis at the City Hall, Kenny Baker and, like yourself, most of all, Freddy Randall. I was 15 or so and heard the band at Seaburn Hall. I remember Betty Smith on tenor, leaning back on her high heels and blowing some great Bud Freeman/Eddie Miller tenor. Strangely, Betty is rarely given her due when the current in theme - women in jazz - is brought up.

I digress. When I floated out of Seaburn Hall the last buses and trains had gone and I had to get a taxi home which didn't please my parents who had to fork out!

For me the Randall band was the best of the lot. Far more exciting than Humph or the trad/pop bands that followed. Only Alex Welsh compared and his personnel were mainly ex-Randall.

Russell said...

Miles, what's a 'self-changing' radiogram?

Hugh said...

Perhaps one that drops the records sequentially one on top of the other when the previous one has finished playing?

Lance said...

They were popular in the 78rpm era just after the war when electrically powered turntables replaced the old wind-up ones. You could stack 8-10 discs giving you 30+ minutes of music - in theory. In practice it wasn't all that simple. The first record played fine as the turntable had a material surface that prevented the discs from slipping. After that when it was shellac upon shellac the discs did tend to slip. Plus the weight of 7 records on 1 probably caused the turntable to slow down. The advent of the vinyl LP was welcomed by all except those who didn't want to have to buy 8 or 12 tracks in case they didn't like all of them!

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