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Bebop Spoken There

Trevor Mires: ''My mum is a Dean Martin fan: I'm not, so I would grab my skateboard and get out of the house whenever I heard "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime." ". (Jazzwise, April 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

17972 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 293 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (April 22).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT! Duo performance.
Fri 25: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums).
Fri 25: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton Mill. 6:00-9:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Fri 25: Struggle Buggy @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. Rhythm & blues.
Fri 25: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £20.30., £18.00. All-star big band.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums). An Opus 4 Jazz Club event.

Sat 26: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Darlington. 12 noon. Free (donations).
Sat 26: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 26: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ Elvet Methodist Church, Durham. 7:30pm. Tickets: £12.00. + bf. Duo performance.
Sat 26: Neil Cowley Trio @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £22.50.
Sat 26: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 27: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 27: Andrea Vicari Trio @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Bradford (drums).
Sun 27: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 27: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Xenopoulos, Edis, Paul Susans, Russ Morgan.
Sun 27: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 27: JustKing Jones @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £17.50. JustKing Jones (alto sax, soprano sax); Jordan Williams (piano); Jason Clotter (bass); Malcolm Charles (drums). Ace NYC outfit!
Sun 27: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 27: Swing Manouche @ Warkworth Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00. Tickets from 01665 711388.
Sun 27: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Xenopoulos, Edis, Ken Marley, Russ Morgan.

Mon 28: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 29: ???

Wed 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 30: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 30: International Jazz Day @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £16.00.; £14.00. adv.. Feat. Guido Spannocchi, John Pope & Steve Hanley + Take it to the Bridge participants + Open Mic Night participants.

MAY 2025

Thu 01: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Member’s Contribution.
Thu 01: Alabaster de Plume @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 01: Living in Shadows + OUTRI @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 01: The Shayo Experiment @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Shayo Oshodi & Liam Oliver.
Thu 01: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free.

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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