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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

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Album review: The Rebecca Kilgore Trio - Vol. 1

Rebecca Kilgore (vocal); Randy Porter (piano); Tom Wakeling (bass); Dick Titterington (cornet 2 tracks).

What a great start to the week! Yesterday the pubs opened and today an album by Rebecca Kilgore landed in the passage and, if that wasn't enough, the first track on the album was Dave Frishberg's Dear Bix - a song tailor-made for Kilgore's gentle, laid back voice and a favourite of mine ever since I heard Roly Veitch sing it at the old Side Café.

The rest of the material isn't bad either. A great selection of the known, the not so well known and, at least to me, the totally unknown. One that falls into the latter category is Talking to Myself About You. Composed by Axel Stordahl, Paul Weston and Irving Taylor with a verse composed and added by Becky herself. As far as I can see, it has only previously been recorded by Peggy Lee - from one great to another. 

Another previously undiscovered gem is The Old Soft Shoe, not to be confused with the old music hall/vaudeville song, but a number composed by Raymond Brown and Tammy Burdette.

Run, Little Raindrop, Run, written by those Hollywood A-listers Mack Gordon and Harry Warren for Betty Grable's 1939 film Springtime in the Rockies, is a delightful piece of nonsense that, in Kilgore's hands, isn't nonsensical at all!

Duke Ellington and Wild Bill Davis collaborated on Azure-té/Azure. The words are by Don Wolf and were new to me. Rebecca turns them into a French jazz chanson without the nasal tones of Piaf or the need to sing in French - c'est magnifique!

You want the love song to end all love songs? Take a listen to That Sunday That Summer. Harry Allen chipped in with a number he called Like the Brightest Star. Nice cornet from Titterington. Surprised they didn't slot him in on Dear Bix. Incidentally, I thought I detected some rhythm guitar on Dear Bix, maybe that was the great lady herself?

I could wax eloquent forever on the voice, the songs, the piano, bass and cornet. In fact, I bet the coffee between numbers was the finest coffee ever tasted, that's how perfect this album is.

It's been a great year for singers so far but this even eclipses the pub openings. That was cool in the wrong sense - I'm still shivering! This was cool in the right sense - and the shivers running down my spine are totally different! 

Volume 1 - can't wait for Volume 2!

Lance.

Available April 30 on the Heavywood label.

Dear Bix; Day in - Day Out; Somebody Just Like You; Run, Little Raindrop, Run; Azure-té/Azure; Talking to Myself About You; Old Soft Shoe; I Wanna Get Married; Like the Brightest Star; That Sunday That Summer; The Gentleman is a Dope; Because We're Kids; There's a Small Hotel.

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