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Bebop Spoken There

Van Morrison: ''Basically, I'm coming from jazz. Not pop, not rock, not what's commercial. That's where I started, and that's still where I am. I feel the same as I did when I was listening to Louis Armstrong, Lead Belly, Jelly Roll Morton''. (The Northern Echo, 12 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

1803759 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 480 of them this year alone and, so far, 58 this month (June 18).

From This Moment On ...

JUNE 2025

Thu 19: Gareth John & the SOS Big Band @ The Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £25.00. CANCELLED!

Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: David Gray's Flextet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. £21.50. ‘Time After Time’.
Fri 20: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm.
Fri 20: King Bees @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.

Sat 21: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Red Kites Jazz @ Staithes Café, Dunston. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: Phoenix 4 @ Wallington, Northumberland. 12 noon-1:00pm & 2:00-3:00pm. Tel: 01670 773606. National Trust admission prices apply. ‘Tunes in the Blooms’.
Sun 22: Lapwing Trio @ Wallington, Northumberland. 1:00-2:00pm. Tel: 01670 773606. National Trust admission prices apply. ‘Tunes in the Blooms’.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs Trio @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 4:00pm. £18.00. + £1.08 bf.
Sun 22: JazzMain @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 23: MSK Trio @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.

Tues 24: ???

Wed 25: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 25: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 25: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 25: The Magpies of Swing @ The Roxy, Leadgate, Co. Durham. 7:30pm. A Ginger Jitterbugs swing dance event, all welcome.

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, December 23, 2021

More tenor players

The review of the cut price Avid label's 2 CD release of four albums by Wardell Gray prompted me to dig out the other 16 vinyl albums I have  of the great man. I love them all - Wardell was perhaps the most underrated of the lot.

Nevertheless, as I listened to him playing Blue Lou along with Erroll Garner it occured to me that not only was this the most relaxed tenor playing I'd ever heard but that it also made me realise that, wonderful as Hawkins, Lester, Rollins and Trane are/were there were others that I listened to more - sometimes as much for their lifestyles as for their music although the latter quality had, of course, to cut it too. Here are some reminiscences...

Wardell Gray: The first time I met Charlie Carmichael he played me a record of  Wardell playing A Sinner Kissed an Angel. This was it - more than Lester less than Bird - maybe one really was a sinner and the other an angel. I don't think either Charlie or myself slotted into the latter category!

Dexter Gordon: When Wardell and Dexter were slugging it out in the joints on Central Avenue the groundwork was set down for whenever tenor saxists should meet and trade blows. I know Flip and Illinois had done it earlier with JATP but this was better. Later, Dexter's Blue Note albums became classics.

Brew Moore: Loved Lester almost as much as he loved booze. The combination of the two served to produce some great tenor playing on several albums that only ceased when his addiction to the latter overcome his dedication to the former and he broke his neck falling downstairs.

Allen Eager: Had it all. A great bop tenor player. Cooler than Getz he could hold his own on 52nd St. alongside the greats. He also manged to work as a ski instructor as well as doing a bit of motor racing. He could, I'm told, also pull the birds. I heard him at a club in Covent Garden. He wasn't at his best that night.

Teddy Edwards: A memorable night hearing him at a venue in Darlington. It was everything I expected from a man who'd been in at the birth of bebop. It was with a local rhythm section - Paul Smith was on drums, I can't recall the others but it was one of those nights that stayed ...

Guy Lafitte: It was at the Breda Jazz Festival where I first heard the French tenor sax player. Breda was predominately a trad festival with Tyneside bands such as the River City Jazzmen and the Saratoga Jazzmen frequently featured so that when I heard Lafitte with Bob Wilber and Warren Vaché it was like a breath of fresh air and I subsequently attempted to corner the market of his albums!

Tommy Whittle: Closer to home, Whittle was, for many years, my favourite British tenor player. I heard him several times at the Hopbine, a pub in North London that served two purposes. It enabled me to untangle the map of the London underground and, in doing so, introduced me to some of the finest tenor playing I'd ever heard. Even after 50 - maybe more - years later I still recall the opening number, Cole Porter's I Love You. Esquire vinyl, Spotlite CDs are still treasured as are the memories of hearing him at Blaydon and Live Theatre.

Gary Cox: A surprise choice but, those of us who remember Gary playing with the EmÇee 5 I'm sure will go along with me in thinking that Gary is another of the most underrated tenor players. My favourite story about Gary, who was playing with Don Smith at the Oxford Galleries in Newcastle at the time, was when he was asked by Ronnie McLean to play with his band at the New Orleans Club. "What's it pay?" asked Gary. "We split the door money" replied Ronnie. Gary went home with one and ninepence. He didn't do the next session!

Betty Smith: She was with Freddie Randall's Dixieland outfit at Seaburn Hall. I'd never heard of a woman playing saxophone until then (I was maybe 15 or 16) but she blew like Bud Freeman and I fell hopelessly and unrequitedly in love with her! Later she played on tv variety shows and Ian Forbes played drums in her band but that moment at Seaburn Hall is the moment that sticks.

Unknown: It was the early 1960s. The late Jim McDowell and myself went for a pint in the Forge and Hammer - a Jarrow pub now long gone. We'd anticipated a quiet pint and maybe a chat about an album by Erroll Garner or Stan Getz. Garner and Getz were soon forgotten! The crew from The Queen of Bermuda were in and there was a guy on tenor blowing some wild blues choruses. Another guy was singing and the ancient piano in the corner suddenly sounded like a Steinway albeit a Steinway that needed some attention both before and after - particularly after! I don't know who the tenor player was but he could have cut it anywhere!

Lance

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