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Bebop Spoken There

Stan Woodward: ''We're part of the British jazz scene, but we don't play London jazz. We play Newcastle jazz. The Knats album represents many things, but most importantly that Newcastle isn't overlooked". (DownBeat, April 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

17923 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 244 of them this year alone and, so far, 91 this month (March 31).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Sat 05: Tenement Jazz Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 05: Sleep Suppressor @ Head of Steam, Newcastle. 5:30-6:00pm.
Sat 05: King Bees @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Raymond MacDonald & Jer Reid @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle. 6:00-9:30pm. £7.72., £1.00. (minimum donation). MacDonald & Reid + Objections + Yotuns.
Sat 05: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Kamasi Washington @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. £33.00.
Sat 05: Vermont Big Band @ The Seahorse, Whitley Bay. 7:30pm. Tickets: £10.00 (from the venue).
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 06: Learning & Participation Showcase @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm (1:00pm doors). Free. Featuring participants from Play More Jazz! Play More Folk! Blue Jam Singers & more.
Sun 06: Joe Steels Group @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Ferg Kilsby, Joe Steels, Ben Lawrence, Paul Susans, John Hirst.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Hooch, Quayside, Newcastle. 6:00pm.
Sun 06: Leeway @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Tannery jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Wed 09: Anatole Muster Trio @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £17.50., £12.50. concs.
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED?

Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.CANCELLED!
Thu 10: Magpies of Swing @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £7.00. A Globe fundraiser (all proceeds to the venue).
Thu 10: Exhaust: Camila Nebbia/Kit Downes/Andrew Lisle @ Jesmond URC, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:30pm doors). £13.20., £11.00. JNE.
Thu 10: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Feat. guests Ray Dales & Jackie Summers.

Fri 11: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: John Rowland Trio: The Music of Ben Webster @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Rowland (tenor sax); Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass).
Fri 11: Imelda May @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 11: Shunyata Improvisation Group @ Cullercoats Watch House. 7:30-9:00pm. Free (donations).

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, April 22, 2022

Album review: Trish Clowes - A View With A Room

Trish Clowes  (soprano/tenor sax}; Chris Montague (guitar); Ross Stanley (piano/Rhodes/B3); James Maddren (drums).

The more perceptive amongst you will have worked out from the title that this is a pandemic lockdown album and I am advised that 7 of the 8 tracks were composed for online livestreams during various lockdowns. 

Trish Clowes is one of an ever expanding bunch of still fairly young composers and performers who are doing things in the UK that keeps jazz interesting and evolving. I feel that much of this music has left behind most of what is coming from the American colonies that doesn’t sound too far removed from the sounds of the 1960s. Within the financial constraints of the British jazz scene she has been a regular recorder and her tours have usually included a date in the north east. I fondly recall a date in the Northern Rock Hall at the Sage when she was touring one of her albums, probably In The Night-Time She Is There or Pocket Compass.

For this album she is joined again by fellow members of her ‘My Iris’ Quartet who have featured on her recent albums. Time was when a jazz group without a bass player was an unusual beast; not so much now. With this group there is either the space for the soloists to work into or there are drones on the guitar or long held notes on the organ to provide a wash for the others to work their artistry in front of.

The opening title reminds us of the constraints of lockdown in its stiff marching snare drum and matching piano opening whilst successive solos on sax, piano and guitar suggest freedom beyond the curtains. Clowes then comes back in with a brasher, bolder more expansive solo; the escape at the end of lockdown.

At times she has a warm round tone which harks back to the early players such as Ben Webster but she can also add a harshness to her tone and it’s that contrast that works so well to provide different ideas across her two solos on A View With a Room.

Next up, The Ness is a seascape inspired by images of a film shot along the Fife coast and the group have captured both the peace and the fury of the seashore before gentle waves close it out.

Amber is for Amber Bauer, CEO of Donate4Refugees and its angularity is suggestive of someone who probably needs more than a regiment’s quota of elbows to get anything done in a world where the Home Office in its current form operates. Ross Stanley’s left hand on the piano provides the elbows and his and Clowes’ solos provide further spikiness. I may be doing Ms Bauer a grave injustice here in ascribing certain personal attributes to her, but I suspect I’m not.

Morning Song is a pastoral ballad that eases us through soft, early sunrise into the day. Clowes gives us a full, warm tenor tone and Stanley a trickling, ruminative solo before Montague’s guitar builds on the atmosphere to take us home.

No Idea lets the guitarist loose in the space that the sparer rhythm section creates before he drops out and Stanley joins in to push Clowes into some of her strongest blowing on the record. Ayana, by way of contrast is quieter, exploratory. This time it is the sax providing the insistent rhythmic motif on which the guitar and piano overlay long runs of notes, together and separately before the piano drops back and the sax comes forward. Structurally, it’s very clever the way that the instruments move back and forth in the mix whilst maintain the mood and the pulse of the piece.

Time has a lovely pastoral feel to it, suggestive of time standing still, as it did for so many of us in the last two years. Languid, in waltz time. The closer, Almost, starts with as a series of disconnected fragments that stealthily stitch themselves together as the themes develop. Is this another exploration of what opening up means as people come together after the lockdowns?

In summary, I really like this album and would give it lots of stars if we did that sort of thing on BSH.

Trish has a website HERE and you will see her tour dates on there, including a visit to The Globe in Newcastle on the 15th of May, and you can get tickets through The Globe website AT THIS PAGE - Dave Sayer

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