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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 2024).

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

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sat 04: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Square, Middlesbrough. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 04: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. Xmas party (rescheduled from early December).

Sun 05: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 05: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 05: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, jazz & blues.
Sun 05: Papa G’s Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 09: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: John H Hammond.
Thu 09: FILM: Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 2:35pm. Documentary (dir. Johan Grimonprez) ‘about jazz, (de)colonial history and activism featuring Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie’.
Thu 09: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 09: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 09: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session now monthly, next one Thursday 2nd Feb, then first Thursday in the month thereafter.

Fri 10: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.

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

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Album review: Buselli/Wallarab Jazz Orchestra - The Gennett Suite

Brent Wallarab (arr./conductor); Greg Ward (sop/alto sax); Amanda Gardier (alto sax); Tom Walsh (tenor sax/flute); Todd Williams (tenor sax); Ned Boyd (bari sax); Clark Hunt, Jeff Conrad, Scott Belck, Mark Buselli, John Raymond, Jeff Parker (trumpets); Tim Coffman, Andrew Danforth, Demondrae Thurman, Rich Dole (trombones); Luke Gillespie (piano); Jeremy Allen (bass); Sean Dobbins (drums)

Will there be a better big band (double) album this year? I have my doubts unless it's a reissue consisting of a couple of Basie and Ellington long players and, even then ...

This is simply magnificent! Don't be fooled by the title and think that this is merely some kind of a Pasadena Roof Orchestra or a Midnite Follies' reincarnation of the past, good as those bands are/were. It isn't and yet it would be if we were able to move the past one hundred years forward!

Wallarab's vision is to celebrate the Gennett recording studio where, in Richmond, Indiana, many of the first great jazz recordings were made by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Louis Armstrong, Hoagland 'Hoagy' Carmichael, Bix Beiderbecke and Jelly Roll Morton to mention but a few.

It's a band that swings as good as any big band from Goldkette to Schneider and those in between.

It's ancient, it's modern, it's yesterday, it's tomorrow as well as the day after tomorrow. The soloists pay tribute whilst retaining their own identity.

There are too many highlights to signal out every soloist and there is only one 'low point' which is, in itself, a high point - I refer to Jeremy Allen's bass feature, Interlude, during which he manages to incorporate the bass intro to All Blues.

Nevertheless, It would be churlish of me not to mention Greg Ward's sumptuous take on Stardust or Luke Gillespie's piano solos where, at times, his left hand is in the past and his right hand is looking to next Tuesday (and sometimes vice-versa!)

Co-leader Buselli and Belck alternate between trumpet and flugel. I could go on and on extolling every one from the person who made the intermission coffee (a change from those original Gennett intermissions!) to all the players and, not least to Brent Wallarab whose arrangements and concept of this project put him up there with - well you name it - anyone.

There are four movements, each relating to a specific band/artist and all are done with respect to the originals but very much for today. 

As a further incentive to get your paws on this doubler, the essays in the booklet are  themselves masterpieces.

VIDEO

Wonderful. Lance

Available June 9 (sadly not on Gennett who shut up shop in 1947/48) on Patois Records.

Movement 1 (Royal Blue): Tin Roof Blues (in two parts); Chimes Blues; Dippermouth Blues.

Movement 2 (Blues Faux Bix): Davenport Blues; Jazz Me Blues; Interlude; Wolverine Blues.

Movement 3 (Hoagland): Stardust; Riverboat Shuffle (in two parts).

Movement 4 (Mr Jelly Lord): King Porter Stomp; Grandpa's Spells.

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