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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18069 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 390 of them this year alone and, so far, 68 this month (May 222).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

23: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. ‘Celebrating Oscar’. SOLD OUT!
Fri 23: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 23: Anna Reay & Deon Krishnan @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Joe Steels Group @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. + £1.55. bf. A Northumberland Jazz Festival fringe event.
Fri 23: Spilt Milk @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 23: Gaz Hughes Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm.
Fri 23: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm. £19.00.; £17.00. ‘Time After Time’.

Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:15pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bywell Hall, Stocksfield. 1:30pm. Northumberland County Show.
Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ The Peacock, Sunderland. 6:00pm.
Sat 24: Dean Stockdale Quartet + Mingus Sings @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Stockdale (piano); Tim Williams (guitar); Gavin Barras (double bass); Gaz Hughes (drums) + Mingus Sings: Sara Oschlag (vocals); Alan Barnes (reeds); Tim Lapthorn (piano); Arnie Somogyi (double bass); Clark Tracey (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sat 24: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 24: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sat 24: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £3.00. + bf.
Sat 24: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 25: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ Spanish City Plaza (outdoor stage). 11:30am & 1:00pm. Free. A Whitley Bay Carnival event.
Sun 25: Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion: Bandstand Sessions @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 1:30pm. Free.
Sun 25: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Catriona Bourne Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Bourne (harp), Francis Tulip (guitar), James Owston (double bass), Joe Bainbridge (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Struggle Buggy @ The Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 25: Joe Steels Group + Norma Winstone (vocals); Nikki Iles (piano); Mike Walker (guitar); Steve Watts (double bass). 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Steels (guitar); Ferg Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Ben Lawrence (piano); Paul Susans (double bass); John Hirst (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 25: Xhosa Cole/Neil Charles/Mark Sanders @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A JNE promotion. Note: Xhosa Cole replaces Nicole Mitchell.

Mon 26: Catriona Bourne Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 26: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 27: Bold Big Band @ Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £12.00. & £10.00.
Tue 27: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Front St., Rothbury NE65 7UT.7:30pm. £12.00.; £10.00. adv. from Tully’s (opp. venue).

Wed 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 28: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 28: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 29: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: That’s the Blues, Dad.
Thu 29: Nova.sol + Mikoudi @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 29: Front Porch Three @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, blues etc.

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

Saturday, September 09, 2023

A Study in Frustration

No, this isn't a reference to the legendary four LP set that acknowledged the importance of, arguably, the first great big band leader and arranger, Fletcher Henderson. Having said that, anyone out there who'd like to post something about Henderson please do so as this is what BSH was intended to be all about in the first place, hence my own frustration.

Okay, so Henderson wasn't a bopper although he did record with perhaps the original bopper Charlie Christian, that's by the by. My original intention was to set up a blog where musicians and fans  could chat and share opinions rather than to become a listing of local gigs and repetitive reviews of local bands and albums by bands from both here and abroad.

I know trying to compete with Facebook is an impossible task - they said that when David got into the ring with Goliath - which is why I share BSH blogs on F/b which keeps us in the fight. However, that's as maybe and nobody's ever going to beat the behemoth that is F/b although I do hear a rustling in the undergrowth ...

What I'm trying to get across here is that, whilst we will continue to review and list gigs, albums and whatever it would help to ease my frustration if you could email me your thoughts and opinions on any jazz related subject, other than self-promotion, that is suitable for posting. Lance (lanceliddle@gmail.com)

3 comments :

Steve Andrews said...

As a total Fletcher Henderson fan, I agree he wasn't a bopper but would note that in the 1940s he employed, amongst others, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Linton Garner, Ed Gregory (Sahib Shihab), and Sun Ra, along with many less well-known but worthy young swing-to-boppers. Check out the 1944/45 airshows on YouTube. Smack's last band in 1950 featured the wonderful Lucky Thompson on tenor!

Tony Charlton said...

This post prompted me to dig out one of my favourite 78s - My Gal Sal / Business In F by The Stokers Of Hades (aka Fletcher Henderson) on Parlophone R1196. To my now-antiquated ears, this offers superior sound quality to what is available on the 1961 LP set or subsequent CD reissues.

I have heard Steve Andrews play Business In F with the NCRO. Given that this piece is the work of Archie Bleyer, known in his words as "King Of The Stocks", would this indicate that the arrangement is still currently published? Having read up a bit on Mr.Bleyer, I
find that by the late 1950s he was the father-in-law of an Everly Brother and producer of the duo's famous hits, having had a hit
of his own a little earlier with Hernando's Hideaway. All of which is a far cry from Coleman Hawkins just over twenty years earlier!

Business In F didn't make it to the Frustration set neither, perhaps more surprisingly, did It's The Talk Of The Town, Hawkins' first fully-fledged ballad solo on record. Does anyone have any suggestions why? Some anti-Hawkins bias on the part of John Hammond maybe...

Steve Andrews said...

Re: Tony Charlton's comment, yes, the NCRO played Business in F off the Archie Bleyer stock arrangement (perhaps altered a bit by Dave Kerr, I can't remember now). I doubt that the stock is still available, but Dave seems to have the happy knack of finding them from his sources around the world! I DO remember starting it on the wrong note at Whitley Bay Jazz Festival - because the title is Business in F, I was thinking in concert key, and started on a C rather than a D (concert C on Tenor sax). Sadly for me, this cock-up is for ever immortalised on Youtube! Thanks for the fascinating further history on Bleyer, too.

As to why Hammond omitted those two great Henderson tracks on the LP set, I guess it was simply down to space available and the positive wealth of material that Fletcher left on record. They were both recorded on Columbia, so would certainly have been candidates. It's perhaps strange that he omitted Talk of The Town because it was from a session for English Columbia & Parlophone that Hammond arranged and supervised, so perhaps it WAS anti-Hawkins bias on his part - he certainly was a Lester Young man after the mid-'30s!

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