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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

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Ten albums by bass players. Part four.

8. Esperanza Spalding – Radio Music Society (2012)

By the time that this album, Spalding's fourth, came out she was really starting to make a name for herself. This one mixes several black music genres and she was probably reported to the Jazz Police on the back of it. In defence of the album you only have to look at the cast list which includes Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano, Terry Lynn Carrington, Gretchen Parlato, Leo Genovese and Lionel Loueke amongst others. Indeed I saw her sat on a stool (her not me, she’s quite short for an acoustic bass player) in a group with DeJohnette, Lovano and Genovese at one of the Sage Gateshead jazz festivals. Radio Music Society is music from that place where soul meets jazz, reminiscent of Stevie Wonder with Spalding’s vocals and popping bass.

9. ACV - Fail in Wood (2009)

It was a toss-up between this album and the later, psychedelically covered, Busk as to which ACV album I would nominate for this exercise. AC is, of course, local lad and ‘hardest working man in showbiz’ nominee Andy Champion and this is a fine album on the late and very lamented Jazzaction label which carried the work of much local north east talent in its heyday. The album is full of knotty twisty rhythms and the bassist and drummer, Adrian Tilbrook, are joined at the hip throughout. Highlights include the dancing, skipping bass solo on Waking the Sleeper, the swaggering title track and the centrepiece of the album, the elegant Black Embrace (Knight Moves). The other members of the quintet, Graeme Wilson on saxes, Mark Williams (guitar) and Paul Edis (keys) are all stars in the local jazz firmament and are consistently inventive throughout.

10. John Pope Quintet - Mixed With Glass (2021)

This is the third album released this year on the New Jazz and Improvised Music Label and is another album with the bass high in the mix so that you are aware of what the leader is doing at all times. It features Faye MacCalman from Archipelago on tenor alongside Jamie Stockbridge on alto and Graham Hardy on trumpet. Johnny Hunter plays the drums. This is a fat, full, in your face sound using a range of rhythms such as the high stepping New Orleans funk of the opener Plato and the Mingus meets Ornette of  Misha, A Miner. There are a number of free excursions, such as on Ing and the fact that I’m never entirely sure what’s going on doesn’t diminish the joy in it. The title track sounds like a second cousin of Once I Had a Secret Love but features a soaring alto/bass duet which isn’t in the Doris Day version. 

A cloth-eared reviewer only gave it 3 stars in April’s Jazzwise. It’s my favourite album of the year so far. A monstrous album. Dave Sayer.

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