Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

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

18146 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 24 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 7), 24

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Fri 09: The House Trio @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Fri 09: Nauta @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Trio: Jacob Egglestone, Jamie Watkins, Bailey Rudd.
Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Warren James & the Lonesome Travellers @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 09: The Blue Kings @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv.). All-star band.

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 15: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Quartet + guest Paul Donnelly (guitar).

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

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Playback session @ Kansas Smitty's. Will Barry Trio live stream Chick Corea - "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs". Jan. 13

Will Barry (piano); Ferg Ireland (bass); Will Cleasby (drums).

(Screenshot by Ken Drew)

Another one of their popular playback sessions. Tonight it was a reworking of Chick Corea's 1968 album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.

I'd known of the album but never actually heard it. Now it's on my bucket list and, if tonight's trio ever put it on wax (how dated does that make me sound?!) then it will be on the bucket list too.

The opening Steps, which segued into What Was, set the stall out for the goodies that were to follow. Barry was simply amazing. If the Blüthner piano had been a cat it would have been purring. Cleasby sported a tee shirt emblazoned: Art& Max& Tony& Elvin& Philly Joe. I suggest he adds & Will.

The tracks from the album rolled out sequentially, each one maintaining the high standard of the previous - apart from The Law of Falling and Catching Up. This experimental excursion into the future didn't cut it for me although I know there are those among us who would disagree.

Sanity returned with the finale - Windows which was omitted from the original cut and  later added to the CD version.
 
I've mentioned the two Wills but their fantastic contributions would have been as grains of sand had Ferg Ireland not bass fiddled whilst the other two burned. Ireland is going to figure in a lot of the jazz polls this year.

Lots of singing and hardly any sobbing from me.
Lance

Steps; What Was; Matrix; Now He Sings, Now He Sobs; Now He Beats the Drum, Now He Stops; The Law of Falling and Catching Up; Windows.

No comments :

Blog Archive