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Bebop Spoken There

Francis Tulip: ''Music speaks louder than words''. (Jazzwise, June 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

17,550 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 514 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (June 28).

From This Moment On ...

JULY 202

Sat 12: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 12 noon. Free. Vieux Carré Jazzmen (12 noon); Rendezvous Jazz (1:00pm); Mississippi Dreamboats (2:00pm); Classic Swing (3:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (4:00pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sat 12: Making Music Seminar: Latin American Music v. Music of Latin America @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 1:00pm. £15.00. (£5.00. online). Jason Holcomb, Alix Shepherd & Carlos Luis Rivera.
Sat 12: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Lovaine Community Garden, North Shields. 7:00pm (doors 6:40pm). £6.00. Limited places, booking essential (via the Community Garden website). BYOF&D.
Sat 12: Hot Club du Nord @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Hall Two.
Sat 12: Sleep Suppressor @ Repas 7 by Night, Berwick. 8:00pm.
Sat 12: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle.8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 13: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 11:00am. Free. Trilogy of Four (11:00am); East Coast Jazzmen (12:10pm); Delta Prophets Trio (1:20pm); House of the Black Gardenia (2:30pm); Mouth of the Tyne All Stars (3:40pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sun 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. ‘The Bandstand Sessions’.
Sun 13: Julie Dexter @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:30pm (doors). £20.00. ‘The Cluny Matinee Jazz Club’.
Sun 13: ’58 Jazz Collective, Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 2:00pm. Tea Dance. SOLD OUT! A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 13: Ferg Kilsby @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Luis Verde (alto sax); Ben Lawrence (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Hirst (drums).
Sun 13: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Sloth Racket @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ Hardwick Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ The Story, Mount Oswald, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.

Tue 15: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Sluice. Tel: 0191 237 3697. 12:30pm. ‘July Jazz Barbecue’. Tickets: £15.00.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ Hackworth Park, Shildon, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ The Witham, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Julian Lage Trio @ 1856 Exchange, North Shields. 7:30pm . Lage (guitar); Jorge Roeder (double bass); Joey Barron (drums).
Tue 15: Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra @ The Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.

Wed 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 16: Brass Bash @ Willington Town Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Wed 16: Brass Bash @ Market Place, Spennymoor, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Wed 16: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 16: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 17: Brass Bash @ Trimdon Community College, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Thu 17: Brass Bash @ Blackhill & Consett Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Thu 17: NONUNONU @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £11:55 (inc bf).

Fri 18: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Brass Bash @ Town Park, Newton Aycliffe, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Fri 18: Brass Bash @ North Terrace, Seaham, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Fri 18: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Knats: Masterclass & jam session @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 18: Rat Pack - Live in Concert @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00.
Fri 18: Front Porch Three @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. A Hoodoo Blues dance class & social. Social & Front Porch Three only from 8:30pm. £5.00.

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

Sunday, August 08, 2021

Tom Atkinson Sextet play Miles Davis' tribute to Jack Johnson @ Darlington Forum - August 5

Tom Atkinson (guitar); Jack Courtney (trumpet); Sue Ferris (sax; flute); Alan Law (keyboards); Deon Krishnan (bass); Jeff Armstrong (drums)

Time to dig out the box set. A surprise, it’s still sealed. I’m certain I’ve played something recently, though recently keeps extending the more the years advance. It must have been the single disc I must have sold years ago. How do they get six hours of music out of just over fifty minutes?

Not a favourite if I’m honest, but none of his fusion albums are, including Bitches Brew, Silent Way and Live Evil, or even On the Corner, the best of the electric years in my view, at least according to memory; something else time messes with.

Turns out my latest phone isn’t up to the job either. Somebody decided to give up on me and get me a phone that I can use to phone people or people to phone me, which seldom happens. In olden times I’d have borrowed Long Sufferer’s smart phone to take photos, but that’s not going to happen now that it’s grafted on.

Jack Johnson - and not Bitches Brew – is Miles’ rock album, or as American journalists call it, rock and roll, though I don’t detect any shards of Elvis or Chuck Berry anywhere.

For John McLaughlin enthusiasts – and there are many of us, from many disciplines beyond jazz – this is as much a part of his oeuvre as that of Miles, though John would and has denied this: 

Miles’ records were always quite carefully directed by him, orchestrated in a way that was not quite obvious...that ability to be able to make musicians play in a way they would not normally think of. He had a way of pulling things out of them that they were unaware of...it was absolutely Miles’ vision...Everybody would come up with things...we were only concerned with what we could do to contribute to what he was playing... the concept and the way music grew and was recorded was truly, absolutely Miles.  

It was apparent throughout that the concert was the brainchild of guitarist Tom Atkinson and he set out his stall from the off:  heavy riffing, strong technique and exacting use of far more technology than was available in the early seventies, at least beyond the studio. Trumpet took it up a notch, followed by Sue Ferris blowing harder sax than I’ve ever heard her before – and I’m a fan - then Alan Law, his keyboard set to Fender Rhodes through most of the set.  Muted horn (we’d also get some wah wah/cry baby) with some doodling, before it's back to the guitar to set things up again. 

The original album was dominated – after Miles – by McLaughlin, newcomer (nineteen year-old) Michael Henderson on bass and drummer Billy Cobham, who’d prove vital to the guitarist in his next major venture – the earth-shattering Mahavishnu Orchestra. Herbie turned up with some groceries and a copy of his latest album for Miles, who then made him play a solo on Farfisa Organ on Right Off, an instrument he’d never come across before.  

Jack Johnson would prove to be a transitional album, in various ways. It was a stepping-stone between the relative calm (in hindsight) of Bitches Brew and the relative ferocity of Live-Evil.  For McLaughlin, it was a mid-point between Tony Williams' Lifetime and his early solo albums, to the explosiveness of the original Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was also a move from relatively straightforward rock rhythms towards the syncopated funkiness of the James Brown/Sly Stone influenced On the Corner.

It’s often said that Michael Henderson brought the funk to Miles, having already played with Aretha and Stevie Wonder (and he would become one of my favourite soul singers with his first four solo albums). It’s also said – at least in my Bluffers Guide to Jazz –that Miles always played the same and – in the liner notes to the boxset – Bill Milkowski concurs ‘any time that Miles Davis plays his trumpet – regardless of the sonic fabric surrounding him – it’s jazz’.

Black Satin, from the aforementioned On the Corner followed. Sue on flute – always a pleasure – and, while I’ve no idea what plays the melody on the original, flute, trumpet and guitar worked well enough. Deon took a first solo, developing it to a frantic slap-bass fest and drawing the only solo applause of the evening. A suitably concise drum solo led to another guitar solo, illustrating just how close jazz-rock was/is to instrumental prog-rock.

Miles Beyond was the final piece, taken from the second Mahavishnu Orchestra album Birds of Fire. Fitting, considering Bitches Brew features a track called John McLaughlin and this box set includes a track (actually several takes) called Go Ahead John, which Paul Stump used as the title of his biography of the great guitarist. Incidentally, he also wrote books about progressive rock and Roxy Music, all of which I’ve read, though I revile his blind (deaf) acceptance of Beatles hegemony.

The melody transferred successfully from guitar and violin on the album to guitar, trumpet and sax live, and Law maintained the significance of the keyboard on the original.

A successful and appropriate return to live gigs (following a wedding and a couple of plays) after a year and a half of confinement. The limited audience of just fifteen souls didn’t spoil it for me at all, though to go forward the industry will need to adapt to this type of thing. Steve T

2 comments :

Chris Kilsby said...

Welcome back to gigs Steve T, and many thanks to him and Russell for the in depth and informative reviews of this exciting and ambitious venture. This has prompted me (and others no doubt) to dig out this amazing LP and others from that era, and I'm delighted to see there are great musicians not only inspired by the music but clearly capable of taking it on! I can't believe this is 50 years old, not just because it dates me, but also because it still sounds fresh to me. It's a curious thought as well that music from my lifetime is in the category of inspiring tributes like this, instead of the familiar GAS book and standards from (even longer) departed heroes.

What's up next in the 50-year anniversaries to look forward to then?! Return to Forever, Weather Report, Nucleus and Mahavishnu surely? Chris K

Steve T said...

Let's hope so. I know another band who were actually rehearsing Jack Johnson until covid happened. Where next I wonder?

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