Bebop Spoken There

Joe Alterman: ''All I wanted to do growing up was to sound like Erroll Garner playing "Poor Butterfly." I thought that was the coolest sound I'd ever heard.'' (DownBeat November, 2026)

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

19,057 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 921 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Oct. 29) 100.

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

From This Moment On

October.

Fri 30: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.

Sat 31: Saltburn Big Band + Durham Alumni Big Band @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Sat 31: East Coast Swing Band @ Cramlington Village Club, Park View, Cramlington NE23 6QJ. 7:30pm. £10.00. (from venue).

November

Sun 01: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £10.00.
Sun 01: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Quintet w. special guest Donna Hewitt (tenor sax, clarinet)
Sun 01: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Sarah Heneghan Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 02: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Tue 03: Alan Law @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free. Alan Law (piano) w. guest tba
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.
Tue 03: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: An Evening of Erykah Badu @ Holy GrAle, Durham. 7:30pm. £3.00.; £2.50. A Durham University Jazz Society event.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Hejira - Celebrating Joni Mitchell @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Cut Capers @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors).
Thu 05: Northern Reaches @ Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. Free (donations). Pete Tanton, Joe Steels, Laurence Blackadder, John Hirst.
Thu 05: Fergus McCreadie @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Stuart Fowler Quintet plays Clifford Brown - Max Roach Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead - Feb. 14

Stuart Fowler (trumpet); Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Alan Law (piano); Mick Shoulder (bass); John Bradford (drums) + Abbie Finn (drums).

Back in the day, before emasculated modern jazz trumpet players - no names no pack drill - monopolised the modern jazz/bebop scene, Fats Navarro and Clifford Brown, along with Dizzy, were the main men.

Fats had a tone, a sound, that went along with his name and Clifford became his natural successor.

The Clifford Brown - Max Roach Quintet was, perhaps, the first great post-Parker band - Silver, Blakey, notwithstanding.

The front line of Brown and Harold Land were as unbeatable as any combo you care to name either before or since.

1959? Give me 1954!

Tonight, at the Central Bar, the Fowler Quintet forsook the Blue Note vaults to recreate the signature dish of the Brown - Roach Quintet that was released on the EmArcy label.

Jordu had Alan Law playing as if he was Bud Powell's younger brother! Is there a better piano man on the scene?

Delilah - not the Delilah - didn't work but, listening to the original, I don't think it worked for them either.

Daahoud swung and Stuart explained the title leaving us all the more knowledgeable but maybe not that much wiser!

Parisienne Thoroughfare! This was a complex piece but Bradford coped with the ever changing tempos and moods and Law added a few Francophilian moments of his own.

Fowler and Keeble were just about as good a frontline as any bop band could want and Harry definitely copped for BSH's Cool Cut Coiffure Award beating Bojo by a country lie.

The set concluded with a blistering version of Duke's What Am I Here For? 

Alas, apart from Abbie - love her - sitting in on drums, the jam session failed to materialise. Needs to be sorted.

Jams all over town where you can blow for free but don't have to pay to get in! Lance

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