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Bebop Spoken There

John McLaughlin: '' A Love Supreme coincided with my search for meaning in life". (DownBeat, March 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

17873 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 194 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (March 14).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Nicknames.
Thu 20: Terri Green Experience @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.90.
Thu 20: King Bees @ The Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Superb blues band.
Thu 20: Lindsay Hannon Trio @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Hannon’s ‘Tom Waits for No Man’ set.
Thu 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 21: Paul Skerritt @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Giles Strong Quartet @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Fri 21: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Featuring special guest Martin Litton (piano).

Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30pm-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 22: Swamp Stomp String Band @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm.
Sat 22: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sun 23: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 23: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Mississippi MacDonald @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. Blues.
Sun 23: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: The Great Deceivers @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Tom Atkinson & co play King Crimson (1969-1974). Atkinson (guitar); Josh Bentham (alto sax); Stu Dawson (bass); Jeff Armstrong (drums).

Mon 24: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 24: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Tue 25: Fred Wesley & the New JB’s @ The Cluny. 7:30pm (doors). £27.50. POSTPONED! New date Wednesday 26 November.

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

Monday, June 14, 2021

Reminiscing in (and out of) Tempo by Andy Hudson - Part Two

Having kicked off last week with the tale of  how, in my first  few months here in the North East, myself and   a fellow student, Ivan Dunne    who shared my passion for both rugby and jazz,   blew our entire SRC grant on supporting a concert by the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the City Hall. I still maintain that it was worth it to hear that horn section with Paul Gonsalves, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney and the extraordinary Cat Anderson on screaming high note trumpet. We took them out for a pint afterwards - the rest is somewhat hazy…

Talking of hazy, in the mid-1970s I managed a bit of a coup in securing the first ever BBC Live outside broadcast – You’ll perhaps remember that this was achieved by playing Radio 3 Audio along with BBC2 TV.

We constructed an unlikely concert as part of the Newcastle Jazz Festival in November '76 – 4 sets

1. The Alex Welsh Band with Bud Freeman, tenor sax. 2. Soft Machine. 3. The Syd Lawrence Orchestra with Annie Ross, vocal. 4. The Roland Kirk Quintet with Steve Turré, trombone, Hilton Ruiz, piano.

So where’s the hazy bit?

Introduced for Live TV by Spike Milligan …. HINT!

As this was of enormous prestige and high technical challenge, the University Theatre (as it was then) was awash with BBC brass (close to 100 of them mostly staying at the Gosforth Park Hotel).

Hazy part 1 – The Sound check.

Enter stage left – Rahsaan Roland Kirk, crashing into the mic array sending them into the theatre front row. Upon re-assembly, a rather urgent young BBC Floor Manager echoed his instructions from the mobile studio in the car park outside.

Mr Kirk sir could you and the band play a piece for us

“Harrumph! “

Whereupon Kirk hit into a medium swing number Indiana – played in a Lester Young Style that would have happily sat in Steve Andrews’ Savannah Syncopators repertoire.

“Thank you Mr Kirk – perhaps now a more up tempo piece.”

“Mo Fokel “  or something similar.

1-2,-1234 count in by Kirk of at least 280 bpm into a blistering Indiana.

“Thank you Mr Kirk – I believe you play more than one instrument at once – might we hear something?”

“Mo Fukel sona bits” or something similar.

Honk Honk from 2 saxes with the bells right up to the mics followed by a free form complex time band rendering in at least 3 different keys of….wait for it… Indiana!

“Thank you Mr Kirk. All fine!”

Kirk was “mo fukelin” his way off stage with a definite grin and the BBC team breathed a sigh of relief. Myself and the TV producer, Tony Cash were laughing away at the piss-take we had all been experiencing from Kirk.

The concert was, as you might expect from the line-up, of exceptional quality.

If you wanted totally predictable spot on delivery of timed autocue reportage commensurate with all the top brass of the BBC present – who would be the last person you would engage as the presenter – you got it - Spike Milligan.

ROLLING

Off the credits and into Spike in 5- 4- 3 -2 -1…- Camera 1

The Auto cue rolled and some bland text eased up the screen about to introduce the big start of Syd Lawrence. At which point Spike took out a monocle and glared threateningly into the camera affecting a German accent.

“Ladies unt Gentlemen - This is not known generally but during zee war, Syd Lawrence was a Luftwaffe pilot, who shot down Glenn Miller just to steal his arrangements unt here he is tonight to play zem – HERR SYD LAWRENCE!”

Syd and the band took at least 10 secs to stop laughing and start playing. The BBC went into the first of many flat spins, until the talented Director Robin Lough just winged it which in a sense was a better manifestation of the jazz genre.

Other memorable parts of the show to me were Soft Machine’s, John Marshall who’s drum kit was quite the largest I’d ever seen…AND of course Roland Kirk, who having crashed on stage which was the only thing that was consistent with his sound check, introduced his set with a crude sound coming from a small recorder under his shirt – The BBC thought there was breakthrough from some other sound source and were in an ultra-flat ultra-spin. But Kirk explained that Ain’t Misbehavin’ was a way of introducing his set which was to be a tribute to Fats Waller with solos on conch and many other surprises for the now, busking in the best possible way, BBC crew.

I did take Kirk along to Roy’s Two Rooms in Gallowgate for a bite to eat. I am not sure that the patron at the time, Roy Santos, had ever seen a large black man wearing a top hat have steak and fries PLUS Peach Melba….All on the same plate!

I am told, but haven’t checked myself, that extracts of that show can be purchased from the archives https://www.loc.gov/item/jots.200022199/ - Andy H.

See also: Reminiscing in (and out of) Tempo by Andy Hudson -Part One.

3 comments :

Cormac Loane said...

Fascinating reminiscences, Andy! Was that Ellington's 70th birthday concert in 1969? I was there as a 14-year-old schoolboy who had recently discovered jazz. I ventured backstage after the gig to collect autographs from the sax section - unfortunately, the only one I could find was Russell Procope. It sounds like Hodges, Gonsalves and the rest were across the road having a pint with you - if only I'd known! (And, by the way, thank you for allowing me to join the Newcastle Big Band a couple of years later - I was so lucky to have that amazing apprenticeship as a musician!)

Roly said...

I remember going a couple of times to an enjoyable jazz session in Gosforth with Cormac on alto. I knew of him from the Newcastle Big Band Sunday lunchtime sessions. It was a classic bebop quintet playing Parker stuff - Donna Lee etc. Was it at the Gosforth Hotel? An upstairs room I think. What was the full line up?
Roly

cadie@protonmail.com said...

Being a member of the audience at the time and having just re-listened to the BBC Festival broadcast from '76 with Spike Milligan's witticisms it was nice to read of these insider comments from the time of the recordings..............

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