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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

17680 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 23 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Jan. 9).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Mon 13: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 13: Raymond MacDonald & Andy Champion @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 14: Zoë Gilby Quintet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.

Wed 15: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 15: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 15: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 15: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session. TBC.

Thu 16: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 17: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 17: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 17: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £TBC.
Fri 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 17: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 18: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 18: Alter Ego + Jamie Toms/Graham Don Duo @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 18: Delta Prophets @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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, January 11, 2023

Alex Clarke Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle - Jan. 10

(© Debra Milne)
Alex Clarke (tenor sax, alto sax); Dave Newton (piano); James Owston (double bass); Clark Tracey (drums)

Post festive blues, end-of-the-month pay day seemingly a long way off, rain, wind, and the little matter of 52000 football fans heading to St James' Park for a League Cup quarter final tie, it all pointed to a low turn out for the first big jazz gig of the year at the Globe. On the approach to the Jazz Co-op's Railway Street premises vehicles were parked everywhere (on roads and pavements), black and white scarves making their way up to Gallowgate. Yes, the portents weren't good.

(© Ken Drew)
How wrong can one be? As the eight o'clock start approached the Globe was all but full. We were there to hear Alex Clarke on the first night of her nationwide tour. Alternating between tenor sax and alto sax, the 'rising star' of the British jazz scene just happened to have with her a hand-picked rhythm section - Messrs Dave Newton, James Owston and Clark Tracey. Labelling these three gents as a 'rhythm section' borders on insulting! Headliners in their own right, this was more 'superstar quartet' than anything else. 

(© Pam)
Tenor sax in hand, Clarke opened with Who Can I Turn To?. Solos all, regulation fours, we were on our way. Poor Butterfly (Clarke switching to alto), a mid-tempo Autumn Leaves, bandleader Clarke didn't go for the 'hard sell' when introducing Billy Strayhorn's Ballad for Very Tired and Very Sad Lotus Eaters, saying simply 'it's on the new album', (CDs were available on the night). Clarke played it as a duet with the masterful Dave Newton. Yes, masterful. A New Orleans shuffle brought in Beetroots Burn (an anagram of Bourbon Street). An A-list quartet, a listening audience, you could describe the first set as a 'resounding success'.   

Second set, alto sax, for a while we were were in bop territory - VoyageIt's You or No One, the new album's title track Only a Year (a Clarke original, referencing her brief time at Birmingham Conservatoire), the breadth of material and Clarke's undoubted composure, suggests the Jazz Co-op's guest star is going to have a long, illustrious career. The trio swung like the proverbials bringing in Just in Time, Clarke must be living the dream working with these guys - Newton and Tracey the senior men, Owston, like Clarke, an outstanding 'rising star'. At about twenty past ten Clarke thought it high time for an end-of-set blues. This Alex Clarke Quartet gig set the standard, the Jazz Co-op's 2023 gig diary features many 'big names', they've got it all to do. It's going to be a fun year. Russell    

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