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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18069 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 390 of them this year alone and, so far, 68 this month (May 222).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

23: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. ‘Celebrating Oscar’. SOLD OUT!
Fri 23: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 23: Anna Reay & Deon Krishnan @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Joe Steels Group @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. + £1.55. bf. A Northumberland Jazz Festival fringe event.
Fri 23: Spilt Milk @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 23: Gaz Hughes Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm.
Fri 23: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm. £19.00.; £17.00. ‘Time After Time’.

Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:15pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bywell Hall, Stocksfield. 1:30pm. Northumberland County Show.
Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ The Peacock, Sunderland. 6:00pm.
Sat 24: Dean Stockdale Quartet + Mingus Sings @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Stockdale (piano); Tim Williams (guitar); Gavin Barras (double bass); Gaz Hughes (drums) + Mingus Sings: Sara Oschlag (vocals); Alan Barnes (reeds); Tim Lapthorn (piano); Arnie Somogyi (double bass); Clark Tracey (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sat 24: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 24: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sat 24: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £3.00. + bf.
Sat 24: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 25: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ Spanish City Plaza (outdoor stage). 11:30am & 1:00pm. Free. A Whitley Bay Carnival event.
Sun 25: Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion: Bandstand Sessions @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 1:30pm. Free.
Sun 25: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Catriona Bourne Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Bourne (harp), Francis Tulip (guitar), James Owston (double bass), Joe Bainbridge (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Struggle Buggy @ The Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 25: Joe Steels Group + Norma Winstone (vocals); Nikki Iles (piano); Mike Walker (guitar); Steve Watts (double bass). 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Steels (guitar); Ferg Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Ben Lawrence (piano); Paul Susans (double bass); John Hirst (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 25: Xhosa Cole/Neil Charles/Mark Sanders @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A JNE promotion. Note: Xhosa Cole replaces Nicole Mitchell.

Mon 26: Catriona Bourne Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 26: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 27: Bold Big Band @ Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £12.00. & £10.00.
Tue 27: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Front St., Rothbury NE65 7UT.7:30pm. £12.00.; £10.00. adv. from Tully’s (opp. venue).

Wed 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 28: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 28: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 29: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: That’s the Blues, Dad.
Thu 29: Nova.sol + Mikoudi @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 29: Front Porch Three @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, blues etc.

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, February 10, 2021

Album review: Dave Stryker – Baker’s Circle (Strikezone Records)

Dave Stryker (guitar); Walter Smith III (tenor sax); Jared Gold (organ); McClenty Hunter (drums); + Mayra Casales (percussion on two tracks).

Back in the olden days (February 2020) this is the sort of album I would have played as a wake up on my daily commutes, a bit of electric boogalooing up and down the A1. It still carries enough heft to bring some light and life into lockdown.

Dave Stryker is not a name known to me though his history includes stints with Jack McDuff and Stanley Turrentine, (including sessions at times with Freddie Hubbard and Dizzy Gillespie) and he appears on Charenee Wade’s ‘Offering: A Tribute to Gil-Scott Heron and Brian Jackson’ which is a favourite in this reviewer’s house. His main focus since Turrentine died has been his organ trio with Gold and Hunter, augmented on this album by Walter Smith III. Smith is another firm favourite round here. He appeared with Michael Janisch in the Northern Rock Hall at the Sage a few years back and his 2018 album Twio is another that was high on the playlist in the car and in the small back room when it came out in 2018.

Track one, Tough, starts as an ensemble boogie with all the band rocking away, a slow interlude allows WSIII to build a solo from tentative notes to a series of fuller fatter tenor runs, Jared Gold’s solo on organ is more full bodied from the off, with the drummer roaring and rolling in the (not too far) background.

El Camino, with Mayra Casales on additional percussion, is more of a dance track with a long run from the leader who then hands the baton over to WSIII, the space behind his solo filled with stabbing organ flourishes and punchy drums, before Stryker comes back in with a needlepoint solo.

Dreamsong calls to mind very early solitary mornings in closing bars and fluorescent lights on wet city streets; you can almost see the pork pie hats. Cole Porter’s Everything I Love is equally romantic, though this time there is someone else in the room as an object of affection.

Rush Hour, a Jared Gold composition, does what it says on the tin. It’s taken at a higher pace, organ and drums pushing the band along, along with Gold grandstanding to keep the energy levels up.

Superstar, a Leon Russell/Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett tune, is probably best known in the UK from the Carpenters’ cover. It’s a laid back early 70s groove.

The title track is named in memory of Stryker’s colleague, Professor David Baker, at the Indiana University Music School; The Circle was the turning circle where Professor Baker waited for his lift at the end of the day. The song is a mid-paced funky roller with Hunter covering a lot of ground on drums. People with working feet can dance to this; me, notsomuch.

Next there is a cover of Marvin Gaye’s Inner City Blues. Covers of this or of Mercy, Mercy, The Ecology Song seem to be almost compulsory now. This is more pulsing urban funk with slower passages to evoke the tragedy of the decay that Gaye witnessed and led him to write the song.

Love Dance is another accurate description; a laid back groove for when lights are low, slow and spacious with Stryker soloing over Jared Gold’s swirling organ. It sounds like the band are taking a breath and conserving their energy for last track, Trouble (No.2). It’s a cover of a song by Lloyd Price who first recorded Stagger Lee. It’s a boisterous swinging strut an all-in, all cylinders firing romp to close with.

This is largely energetic, good time music, and, if I ever go back to work, it
’s going in the car with me.

Dave S

Tough, El Camino, Dreamsong, Everything I Love, Rush Hour, Superstar, Baker’s Circle, Inner City Blues, Love Dance, Trouble (No. 2)

Baker’s Circle is released on March 5 and will be available from all the usual suspects and from davestryker.com

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