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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17805 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 126 of them this year alone and, so far, 51 this month (Feb.16).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

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: Mississippi MacDonald @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. Blues.
Sat 22: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Old Cinema Laundrette, Durham. 7:45pm. £16.50. SOLD OUT!
Sat 22: Michael Woods @ 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: Mark Williams Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 23: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 23: Mississippi MacDonald @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. Blues.
Sun 23: Mu Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 23: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

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

Tue 25: ?

Wed 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 26: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 26: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 27: Jamie McCredie @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Fri 28: Luis Verde Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 28: Spilt Milk @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 28: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £8.00.
Fri 28: Knats @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.50. (inc bf.). Album launch gig. Support act TBC.
Fri 28: Black is the Color of My Voice @ The Gala, Durham. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by the life of Nina Simone, performed by Florence Odumosu.
Fri 28: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival: Musicians Unlimited @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 8:00pm. £10.00. (Weekend ticket £20.00., available on the door). Day 1/3. Musicians Unlimited in concert.
Fri 28: Redwell @ 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, March 22, 2023

Album review: Pharoah Sanders Quartet – Live At Fabrik, Hamburg 1980 (Jazzline Classics, 2023)

Sanders (tenor sax); John Hicks (piano); Curtis Lundy (bass); Idris Muhammad (drums).

As it was for scruffy scousers in the early '60s, based on this ongoing series of archive concert releases, in the '80s Hamburg looks like it was the place to be for jazzers. And that’s no Fabrikation! This week brings a 1980 recording by the Pharoah Sanders Quartet out of the drawers. And it is Sanders looking quite old on the cover but displaying no age related restraint in the music. In fact it is, largely, 70 minutes of joy, swing, energy, screaming, screeching, blueswailing fun. I don’t know whether it was exceptionally well recorded back in 1980 or if the sound is the result of some analogue to digital cleaning up, but this recording leaps out of the speakers. I first played it whilst driving on the A1 and Ferrybridge has never seemed such a joyous place.

Most of the music (four of five tracks) is from Sanders’ then newly released Journey To The One; the exception being the ‘greatest hit’ The Creator Has A Master Plan from the Karma album which came out in 1969. Hicks and Muhammad were both featured on the Journey album whilst Lundy looks to have been brought on board for live dates.

We’re thrown into the roiling melee from the off with John Hicks' heavyweight left hand introducing You’ve Gotta Have Freedom. In fact Hicks is a player of contrasts, his right hand plays some lovely melodies whilst the weight of his left hand block chords sound like he’s trying to smash the piano apart. Sanders, meanwhile takes the tenor to places it doesn’t usually go offering up high pitched growls, wails and snarls. There’s a furious, full-blooded drum solo that keeps things kicking along at the same level to revel in. A slow, bluesy coda leads us out with Sanders circular breathing and playing against echoes of his own notes. The crowd, and quite reasonably so, goes absolutely bonkers. It’s been 18 minutes (nearly three times as long as the studio version) and everyone wants to celebrate.

Second piece, the ballad It’s Easy To Remember is a Rodgers and Hart composition for the 1935 Bing Crosby film Mississippi but it is more likely that it came into Sanders’ orbit through hearing John Coltrane’s recording on his Ballad album which came out in 1962. It opens with a lovely, romantic duet between Sanders and Hicks, with Hicks playing what’s left of his piano after the first tune. He plays especially lyrical, long, elegant, dancing runs. Just a lovely piece.

Dr. Pitt is at that point where, in the sixties, the new soul met jazz and both parties partied; all it needs is a hopeful Gil Scott-Heron vocal over the top. If Easy…. showed the tender side of the band, Dr. Pitt is all aggression. Sanders swings his way through some early choruses over absolutely rock solid percussion from Muhammad and Hicks then he takes off, running through his whole repertoire of wails, grunts, shrieks, yells and growls. As with the first track, Dr. Pitt is given a greatly extended workout but there’s not a wasted moment.

The Creator Has A Masterplan is truncated from the 30 minute studio original. It has a lovely melody, intended to invoke the spiritual heights of A Love Supreme. For all its brevity, this is another powerful performance with Sanders displaying the full range of the tenor’s voice from powerful, impassioned shrieks, suggestive of a Southern Baptist preacher, to lovely elegant lines. This version is for those of you who were stunned by the free jazz wigout on the studio version.

To close we have Greetings to Idris which sounds like a celebration as if the band know how good they have been across the previous hour and now want to party and just swing the evening out. And why not?

These Fabrik releases have received universally positive reviews and I hope that this re-issue series continues. This one covers the period in Sanders’ career after he had been dropped by Impulse, for which label he had recorded his best known work. This Live At Fabrik album suggests that Impulse had made a bad decision and that he was still capable of outstanding work. He picked up many fans with his collaboration with Floating Points shortly before he died and this live album is as good a place for any who first heard of him then to continue their journey into his music.

Now I’ve got half an hour before tea so we’ll be listening to the studio version of The Creator Has A Masterplan, wigout included. Dave Sayer

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