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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18018 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 339 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (May 7).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Thu 15: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: The Greatest in Jazz - Guitarists.
Thu 15: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 15: New Ways of Moving in the Counterworlds @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). John Garner & John Pope.

Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Sophie Speed with the Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ Longframlington Memorial Hall. 7:00pm (doors). Tickets: £12.00. from 01665 570984.
Fri 16: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £10.00.
Fri 16: Peter Donegan & Anthony Donegan @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. ‘Lonnie Donegan - The Stories’.

Sat 17: Teresa Watson Band @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sat 17: The Society Quartet @ Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Tel: 0191 500 9494. £26.00 (inc. two course meal). Line-up: Jason Holcomb, Hannah Taylor, Alix Shepherd & Abbie Finn.
Sat 17: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 17: Archie Brown & the Young Bucks @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues, Americana etc.
Sat 17: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Rockabilly, Western swing etc.

Sun 18: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 12 noon-2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 18: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 18: Ruth Lambert & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 18: Steve Summers Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 19: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 19: Lewis Watson Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 20: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.
Tue 20: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth NE61 1ND. 8:00pm.

Wed 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 21: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 21: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. 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

Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Book/CD review: Brian Morton - The Making of Chet Baker Sings

Chet Baker (trumpet, vocal); Russ Freeman (piano); Jimmy Bond, Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon (bass); Peter Littman, Lawrence Marable, Bob Neel, Shelly Manne (drums)

Back in the mid-fifties I recall a Melody Maker headline that read "Chet Baker to appear in London - But only to sing!" This was, at the time, akin to saying that Fred Astaire would be appearing but wouldn't be dancing.

This was, of course, due to the ongoing situation where foreign musicians weren't allowed to play for fear of them taking work away from British musicians. It didn't apply to singers as they would have local musicians accompanying them.

As time went by Chet's singing became more and more accepted although the late Sinclair Traill in the April 1959 issue of Jazz Journal reviewing Chet Baker Sings wrote: "It is the sad music of despair - a sound I can do without". A ludicrous statement that was typical of the jazz critics of that era.

Fortunately, the years and this album have proved the pundits wrong. Chet Baker Sings now stands alongside Sinatra's Wee Small Hours and the Ella Song Books as being among the all time vocal classics.

The fact that someone has found it worthy enough to write an 80 page hard-backed book about the album is proof, if proof were needed, of its importance. A Kind of Blue, Jazz at Massey Hall and A Love Supreme are among the few jazz albums given that degree of acceptance. Morton does it justice without going too deeply into the actual goings on in the studio. Instead he gives us the background to the session without the sensationalism that most of Baker's biographers do.

As regards the actual music, this is as cool as it gets and yet packed with underlying emotion. The voice rests comfortably between Sinatra's romanticism and Tormé's vocal agility over twenty GASbook classics - six more than on the 12" album and twelve more than on the original 10" album released in 1954.

Despite the title, the trumpet isn't absent. On The Thrill is Gone he blows a fine obligato behind the vocal whilst his intro to There Will Never be Another You wouldn't have sounded out of place at Condon's or Jimmy Ryan's giving substance to the suggestion that Chet was a natural evolution from Bix. Fine piano from Russ Freeman too.

Highly recommended for both the music, Brian Morton's descriptive writing and the black and white photos, many previously unseen, by various photographers including William Claxton - Lance

That Old Feeling; It's Always You; Like Someone in Love; My Ideal; I've Never Been in Love Before; My Buddy; But Not For Me; Time After Time; I Get Along Without You Very Well; My Funny Valentine; There Will Never be Another You; The Thrill is Gone; I Fall in Love Too Easily; Look For the Silver Lining; Daybreak;; Just Friends; I Remember You; Let's Get Lost; Long Ago and Far Away; You Don't Know What Love is.

Brian Morton: The Making of Chet Baker Sings. Jazz Images 2021.

1 comment :

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review. It's probably common currency among your readers. But just in case not it's worth reiterating that Brian Morton is one of the world's best jazz writers. No one really gives a damn really about jazz writers which is abysmal of course but the reality so more should actually praise writers of his calibre given the pervasive whistling in the dark otherwise. Because what he writes belongs more in the realms of literature even if he only pens a small review, even a caption (as he sometimes writes for the Italian Cam Jazz label). Only Geoff Dyer (in the pages of But Beautiful) is in the same league in terms of style, intellectual rigour and substance.

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