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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

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sun 05: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 05: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 05: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, jazz & blues.
Sun 05: Papa G’s Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 09: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: John H Hammond.
Thu 09: FILM: Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 2:35pm. Documentary (dir. Johan Grimonprez) ‘about jazz, (de)colonial history and activism featuring Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie’.
Thu 09: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 09: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 09: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session now monthly, next one Thursday 2nd Feb, then first Thursday in the month thereafter.

Fri 10: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.

Sat 11: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 11: Under the Wellie @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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

Friday, September 10, 2021

Hand to Mouth @ The Lit & Phil - September 9

Lindsay Hannon (vocals); Bradley Johnston (guitar)

Following some fifteen months enforced inactivity, Newcastle's Lit & Phil lunchtime jazz concert series resumed in July. Understandably, the venue's management imposed severe restrictions on audience numbers resulting in the first two events of the year in July and August making a loss.  What to do? How to save the series? Ask two of the region's best if they'd perform at a fundraising concert, that's what! 

Lindsay Hannon and Bradley Johnston are Hand to Mouth, and, without hesitation, they readily agreed to help out Jazz at the Lit & Phil (JATLP). A large attendance - including two or three new faces - helped matters no end. Lindsay and Bradley continue to explore the wonderful collaboration between Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass. The legendary duo recorded four studio albums for Pablo Records plus a couple of live albums and it is these recordings which form the basis of Hand to Mouth's set. 

Lindsay, battling a heavy cold (our vocalist reassuring her audience it wasn't the virus, she'd taken a test!) and Bradley, now B. Johnston MMus (to add to his BMus), played a one hour set to a 'pin-drop' attentive audience. How she does it we'll never know, but Lindsay didn't require a lyric sheet, a quite remarkable recall of a lyric! Bradley? Joe Pass lives! 

Take Love EasyDindi, 'Tis Autumn, our duo conjuring wonderful interpretations of timeless material, the audience loving every minute of it. I Ain't Got Nothing but the Blues sang Lindsay, blowing away JATLP's blues. Ray Noble's The Very Thought of YouNature Boy (a new one in the set), Ellington's (In My) Solitude, it had be a magical hour. 

JATLP owes a debt of gratitude to Lindsay and Bradley, and indeed the audience, for so generously supporting today's fundraising concert. Thanks to all concerned the series will be able continue, and hopefully thrive, long into the future. Next week's concert (Friday 16), features the brilliant Leeds based guitarist Nic Svarc with his A-list trio. One o'clock start. Russell      

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