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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

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free. Business as usual!.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 27: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sat 28: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 11:30am. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 28: Fri 20: Castillo Nuevo @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 28: Jude Murphy, Rich Herdman & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 28: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Stepney Bank, Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sun 29: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 29: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 30: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 30: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.

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

Saturday, April 03, 2021

Album review: Clare Foster - Kumbhaka*

I initially viewed this album with mixed feelings. A great selection of standards plus a few originals but, all given a Latin treatment. My mind boggled! Singin' in the Rain as a bossa? I Get Along Without You Very Well as a bolero? I Only Have Eyes For You as a rumba/salsa and I Can't Help Singing - first heard as a semi-operatic workout for Deanna Durbin in the film of the same name - as a chacarera? I ask you!

However, there were two factors I'd left out of the equation, Clare Foster's vocal technique and the arrangements by Shanti Jayasinha and Ms. Foster herself. This turned what could have been just another gimmick that failed into an exciting reinvention of some well-loved tunes.

Admittedly some worked better than others but there were no train-crashes and, in actual fact, some of the numbers that didn't click the first time round came back and hit me like a Tyson Fury right cross when I listened again! It's an album that grows on you with repeated hearings.

Clare Foster has a voice that slots nicely above the Latin rhythms and riffing horns pulsating beneath her. On the fast ones her deft handling of the words threatens to outrun the musicians! On the slows, the emotion is controlled without loss of feeling and her originals are just that.

Jayasinha blows trumpet and has a rather gorgeous cello solo on one of the slower numbers, Mick Foster is also heard to advantage on his various horns as is the Fender Rhodesian Crawford. Sue Davis gives Clare a vocal break on track 11 with a song attractively rendered in Portuguese.

Kumbhaka - The Space Between Each Breath.

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. 

In that space is our power to choose our response. 

In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

Viktor E. Frankl.


Listen to No Moon at All with some nice bass clarinet enhancing the vocal.

Lance


Try/buy Bandcamp.






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