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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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly.
Thu 23: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Obituaries 2024.
Thu 23: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 23: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 24: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ Lindisfarne Social Club, Wallsend. 9:00pm. Admission: TBC. Jazz, blues , jump jive, rock ‘n’ roll.

Sat 25: Boys of Brass @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 25: New '58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson's Wharf, Hartlepool. 6:30pm (doors). Free. A Burns' Night event. Jazz, swing, funk, soul, blues etc.
Sat 25: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Parish Hall, St Barnabas’ Church, Rowlands Gill. 7:30pm. £10.00. BYOB (tea & coffee available), raffle. Proceeds to St Barnabas’ Church. Performance feat. Shayo (vocals).
Sat 25: Jack & Jay’s Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues.

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

Monday, October 09, 2023

Bill Coleman (t,scat-v) + Guy Boyer - Metro jazz, 1962 or 63, Antibes, T...


Bill Coleman was probably one of the most underrated of swing-era trumpet players. I was fortunate - or should I say blessed? - to hear him at Newcastle's Connaught Hall with the Alex Welsh Band and later at the North Sea Jazz Festival.

On both occasions I was impressed. 

Coleman first caught my eye/ear when I heard him on an EP with Guy Lafitte. From that day on both became faves. The sad thing is that now, few of today's fans probably remember either of them.  Lance

7 comments :

Bill Montgomery said...

Now that's what I call a jazz gig! The guy sitting on top of the piano, the bottles on the piano, the scatting and the horn playing! This wasn't no posh gig in a so called music college. This was the real deal.

Lance said...

You called it right!

Patti said...

Bill Coleman was born in Paris, Kentucky in 1904 - and it's his swinging trumpet on the Fats Waller classic 'Dream Man'. He joined the guys like Dickie Wells, who went out to Paris, France in the 1930's - and recorded on some of the wonderful 'Americans in Paris' series. He obviously fell in love with the country - it seems he went back to live in France in the 1940's, after WW2 ...... he settled there, after a period touring with Lucky Millinder's band. Anyway, he preferred the life across the pond - Bill Coleman eventually died in Toulouse in the early 1980' - so the lifestyle in France obviously suited him. It's ironic that he was born in that other Paris though!

Lance said...

Bill Coleman also has a bit part in the novel Half Blood Blues recently reviewed. A fantastic must read story.

Tony Charlton said...

My recollection is that Bill Coleman appeared with the Alex Welsh Band in 1975 at Gosforth Civic Hall, not the Connaught Hall.
I can't remember anything about the music, except to say that by that time the Welsh Band was past the tremendous peaks it reached in the period say 1966-71. An earlier performance in the region by Bill Coleman was at Redcar Jazz Club in April 1966,when he was accompanied by the Bruce Turner Jump Band. This is confirmed by the history of the Club published by the local council in 1996.

Lance said...

Yes, it was the Bruce Turner Jump Band that accompanied him at the Connaught in 1966 as confirmed in Chris Yates' book Blue Horizons.

Tony Charlton said...

I think I should have said 1976 not 1975 for Bill Coleman at Gosforth Civic Hall.

And for a really useless piece of information - when Roger Vadim married Brigitte Bardot, Guy Lafitte was his best man.

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