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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 2024).

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

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Thu 02: ???

Fri 03: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 03: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 03: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 03: John Gregory @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar.

Sat 04: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Square, Middlesbrough. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 04: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £5.00. Xmas party (rescheduled from early December).

Sun 05: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 05: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 05: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, jazz & blues.
Sun 05: Papa G’s Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

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

Sunday, February 14, 2021

Album review: Tommy Flanagan - In His Own Sweet Time

Tommy Flanagan (piano).

By 1994 Tommy Flanagan had played and recorded with just about anyone who was anyone in jazz. Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster, Harry Edison - a seemingly endless list. And yet, incredible as it may seem, until that October day 26 years ago he'd never given a solo concert. It took a lot of persuasion, with his wife and manager Diana at the negotiating table, to get him to agree to appear at the small Bavarian town of Neuberg on the Danube but, eventually, he gave in although his post concert reaction was in direct contrast to what was heard by the audience.

"It was horrible, I will never do something like this again," he said afterwards adding that he thought the audience were just being sympathetic and generous with their applause and, as a result, the recording lay gathering dust in the record company's vaults until now, almost 20 years after his death.

After listening, I find it incredible that he could sell himself so short. Flanagan doesn't deliver a Peterson or a Garner style blockbuster. You don't gasp in awe at his technique. Instead you appreciate the depth of his harmonies, his reconstruction of the melody, the sheer beauty, the magic that flows from his heart, his head and his hands via the  Bösendorfer Grand. If he was effected by nerves that night, and by his comments he must have been a bundle of them, they certainly don't show.

It's over 50 years since I last heard Tommy Flanagan with Ella and JATP. It's been a long time but this solo album was well worth waiting for.

There's a YouTube video of him being interviewed by Billy Taylor in which he gives a beautiful rendition of Tadd Dameron's Smooth as the Wind which is also the opening tune on the album.

Lance

Available on the ENJA label from Feb. 21.

Smooth as the Wind; If You Could See me Now; Untired Blues; Some Other Spring; How Long Has This Been Going On?; Who Can I Turn To?; Just Squeeze me; Day Dream; Valse Hot; Good Bye*.

* Spelling as per sleeve/booklet. Note: Some sites list an additional track - Dance of the Infidels but it's not on my copy!

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