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Bebop Spoken There

John McLaughlin: '' A Love Supreme coincided with my search for meaning in life". (DownBeat, March 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

17873 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 194 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (March 14).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Nicknames.
Thu 20: Terri Green Experience @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.90.
Thu 20: King Bees @ The Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Superb blues band.
Thu 20: Lindsay Hannon Trio @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Hannon’s ‘Tom Waits for No Man’ set.
Thu 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 21: Paul Skerritt @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Giles Strong Quartet @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Fri 21: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Featuring special guest Martin Litton (piano).

Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30pm-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 22: Swamp Stomp String Band @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm.
Sat 22: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sun 23: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 23: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Mississippi MacDonald @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. Blues.
Sun 23: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: The Great Deceivers @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Tom Atkinson & co play King Crimson (1969-1974). Atkinson (guitar); Josh Bentham (alto sax); Stu Dawson (bass); Jeff Armstrong (drums).

Mon 24: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 24: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Tue 25: Fred Wesley & the New JB’s @ The Cluny. 7:30pm (doors). £27.50. POSTPONED! New date Wednesday 26 November.

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, March 22, 2023

Album review: Larry Bluth Trio - Never More Here

Larry Bluth (piano); Don Messina (bass); Bill Chattin (drums)

Another piece of Tristanoism emerges. This time in the form of Larry Bluth, a pianist and a Tristanoite by proxy of having studied with Lennie Tristano's most well-known piano student Sal Mosca.

Hopefully, the release of this album and the Mosca album reviewed a couple of days back may lead to a renewed interest in Tristano and his followers of whom I'm rapidly becoming one. This may sound like heresy and it probably is but, much as I love Monk, apart from Stan Tracey, his imitators tend to sound like Les Dawson!

Listening to this superb trio album (bassist Messina is another member of the T Club and drummer Chattin is also a card-carrying member) makes me realise how important Lennie was in the evolution of modern jazz and how proud he would have been to know that his legacy had been carried on so well by Mosca and Bluth. All three are now gone but, hopefully there are pianists out there carrying on the tradition.

The late George Wallington was one who's career paralleled Lennie's and bore stylistic similarities.

Another was, unbelievably, a man who never recorded and played in a CIU club in Hebburn with Bill Shaw on drums!

This was John Short - a long forgotten Hebburn musician remembered only by those club 'turns' who tried to sing Delilah over complex diminished chords and ruptured ninths with which John 'enhanced' their performance. Nevertheless, he was an outstanding musician who was way ahead of his time on South Tyneside and maybe anywhere else had he chosen to expand his horizons further than the Colliery Club.

Getting back to the matter in hand. If you liked Lennie, you'll like this, if you liked Sal, you'll like this, if you like modern jazz when jazz was modern, you'll LOVE this. Lance

Klactoveedsedsteen; Sweet and Lovely; Sippin' at Bell's; A Ghost of a Chance; Yesterdays; Riverdale; Larry's Line; These Foolish Things; Sound-Lee.

Available on Fresh Sound Records FSR-CD5068

1 comment :

Unknown said...

You're so right Lance to mention pianist John Short in the S Tyneside area. I was lucky enough to be in his Trio for a while working at "The Kismet Club" and "The Shore Line Club" These jobs were an education in life......
For our supper at the Kismet we were given a few chips and a little curry sauce to dip them in..........!
John had a great talent and as you know, was taken from us too early from cancer....

Dave B.

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