Total Pageviews

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

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly.
Thu 23: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Obituaries 2024.
Thu 23: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 23: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Dave Sayer’s Best of 2021

According to many commentators it has been a ‘funny old year.’  Usually my best of the year’s CDs list includes many that I had bought after gigs, still flush with the excitement of the preceding couple of hours. Not so this year. And, if it hadn’t been for a mad rush around the Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music, I would hardly have seen any live jazz at all. Thankfully, what I did see was very good and, in one case at least, exceptional.

CDs

My Top Ten New Release CDs of the year are:

1.     Mixed With Glass – John Pope Quintet

2.     Cairn – Fergus McCreadie

3.     Promises – Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, The London Symphony Orchestra

4.     Another Land – Dave Holland, Kevin Eubanks, Obed Calvaire

5.     Sunrise Reprise – Chris Potter Circuits Trio

6.     The Last Call - Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine

7.     Black To The Future – Sons of Kemet

8.     Side Eye NYC – Pat Metheny

9.     Echoes to the Sky – Archipelago   

 10. Grateful Deadication – Dave McMurray


Best Re-issues of the year

The three that I have enjoyed the most this year are all live albums by some of jazz’s biggest names. Two of them (by Morgan and Mingus) were expanded versions of previously released live albums, the other helped to rewite the history around a jazz masterpiece. Whilst all of the reviewers of the newly discovered A Love Supreme – Live in Seattle placed it in the context of Coltrane’s development from the release of the studio version to the Seattle Concert, identifying the huge leaps he had made in the, relatively few, intervening months, at the end of the day its what was in the grooves that counted. Probably the best album of the year, new or old.

1.   1. A Love Supreme – Live in Seattle – John Coltrane

2.   2. Mingus At Carnegie Hall – Charles Mingus

3.   3. The Complete Live At The Lighthouse – Lee Morgan 

Best Live Gigs

For most of the year there was nothing but tumbleweed so it’s hats off to the organisers of the NFOJAIM for making sure that went ahead and to all the other promoters who, over the years have brought some fantastic musicians to the North East. Hopefully, there will be more to see next year, though the Maria Schneider concert in January in London has been cancelled due to covid restrictions around the world.

My top 5 gigs of 2021 are : 

1.   1.  Fergus McCreadie at the Lit and Phil

2.   2.  John Pope Quintet at the Black Swan

3.   3.  Yussef Dayes at the Wylam Brewery

4.  4.   The Nikki Iles Jazz Orchestra at Hall 2 at The Sage

5.  5.   Archipelago at Gosforth Civic Theatre

Books

Finally, I haven’t read many good books about jazz this year, but one that deserves a mention is The History of Jazz by Ted Gioia. Well worth a day or so of anyone’s time. It’s a gateway to music you haven’t heard before and a prompt to dig out stuff you haven’t played for years.

Here’s to a swinging 2022.  Dave Sayer

No comments :

Blog Archive