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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

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

Thursday, September 23, 2021

Album review: Chet Doxas – You Can’t Take It With You

Chet Doxas (sax); Ethan Iverson (piano); Thomas Morgan (bass)

This CD arrived on the day that the government announced an increase in National Insurance to pay for social care in the UK. We now have the threat of fuel price rises and the end of the Universal Credit uplift. Not only can you not take it with you, you might not have it for very long in the first place!!

I hadn’t heard of Chet Doxas or Thomas Morgan before this CD, though I knew Iverson from his playing with The Bad Plus, a self-proclaimed ‘power trio.’ This is a drummer less group that creates space and the instruments can float, unanchored, between each other. The lack of the drummer seems to make the listener lean in that much closer, though that’s partly the result of some soft playing as well. The standard of composition and playing is such that you want to catch all of what’s going on. Closer listening is rewarded.

Although this is a showcase for Doxas’ compositions he actually lays out for much of the album (his liner notes say he was practising getting out of the way) and Iverson’s piano is often the lead voice. This throws more light onto the bass as well and Morgan is always up to the task, a constant pulse, under and behind everything, on the title track, for instance, Morgan takes the lead, opening the album and there is relatively little of Doxas.

The second tune Lodestar (for Lester Young) has Iverson playing inside the piano. Sporadic fantastic sounds and increasingly heavy chords mark out a path for the sax to follow. It builds to a liberation then a Prez inspired outro that leads into Part of a Memory, a wailing lament that becomes a more uplifting dance with twinkling piano, the bass guiding the steps.

Twelve Foot Blues is the easiest track on the album to find your way into. It’s a rolling Mississippi riverboat blues with the three protagonists circling each other and giving each other the nod and a hint of who Could Ask For Anything More?

Doxas describes Last Pier as a film noir soundtrack with the piano playing the world weary Joe who cracks the case. The sax provides the relief and the imagery of the bad guy face-down in the water as dawn is breaking and the broad (can we still say that?) has been rescued.

Snapshot is a high volume, low knowledge argument with Doxas ranting through and round his sax. It’s what passes for politics on Fox News. By way of contrast, Up There in the Woods is an easy West Coast swing, a two-step in the light in tribute to guitarist Jim Hall.

The closer, View from a Bird, was inspired by Femme, oiseau, etoile by Joan Miro, rather than by Charlie Parker and its Spanish roots show through. It’s more of a Hollywood interpretation of Spain but it ends the album on an optimistic note, it’s an invitation to dance whilst you still have both the ability and the desire to.

You Can’t Take It With You is available on CD from Sept. 24 and on vinyl the week after. It can be bought HERE through Bandcamp, from Jeff ‘The Urban Spaceman’ Bezo’s site and through the usual other outlets. Dave Sayer

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