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Bebop Spoken There

Stan Woodward: ''We're part of the British jazz scene, but we don't play London jazz. We play Newcastle jazz. The Knats album represents many things, but most importantly that Newcastle isn't overlooked". (DownBeat, April 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

17904 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 225 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (March 24).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Fri 28: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00 SOLD OUT!.
Fri 28: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 28: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
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: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Old Cinema Laundrette, Durham. 7:45pm.
Fri 28: Sue Ferris Quintet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £10.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 28: Mostly Moonlight @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Fri 28: Juliana Day & Manon McCoy @ Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00.; £10.00. advance. JNE.

Sat 29: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 29: Doris Day Story @ Phoenix Theatre, Blyth. 7:30pm.
Sat 29: Squabble! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 30: Jan Spencelayh & Dave Archbold @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 30: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 30: Jamil Sheriff Trio w. Nadim Teimoori @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 30: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 30: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 30: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 30: Jamil Sheriff Trio w. Nadim Teimoori @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 31: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

APRIL 2025

Tue 01: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels, Paul Grainger, Mark Robertson.
Tue 01: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 02: Lauren Bush: The Jazz Singer’s Toolkit @ The Pele, Corbridge. 1:00-4:00pm. Vocalist Lauren Bush with pianist Jamil Sheriff presents a jazz singing workshop. £40.00. (inc. evening concert, see below). Registration required for workshop: www.laurenbushjazz.com. All ability levels welcome.
Wed 02: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 02: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Wed 02: Lauren Bush & Jamil Sheriff @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00-9:00pm. £10.00. Concert performance. Tickets: www.laurenbushjazz.com.
Wed 02: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 02: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. POSSIBLE CANCELLATION. See website for updates: www.theglobenewcastle.bar.

Thu 03: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Women in Jazz.
Thu 03: Eva Fox & the Jazz Guys @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 03: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. First Thursday in the month.

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, November 20, 2023

Book review: Peter Jones' Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen

Jazz singer and acclaimed author of bios on Mark Murphy and Jon Hendricks, Peter Jones has scored a hat trick with Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen. Despite lacking the assistance of his subject, Jones’ 368 page tome is insightful, heavily researched and spares no detail. It picks up the Steely Dan tale post 1994 when Brian Sweeting’s Reelin' in the Years was published. This includes new and valuable coverage of Fagen's solo albums Morph the Cat (2006) and Sunken Condos (2012) which are welcome and important additions to Fagen’s oeuvre.

Jones' analogies between SD and the Beatles do ring somewhat true with the “who wrote what” question as is the case with Lennon/McCartney and, for that matter, Ellington/Strayhorn. Especially with the strong love for and the jazz influences evident in the music of Fagen and his band, and writing partner, Walter Becker.

As session guitarist, Jay Graydon  (who played on some SD albums) says - “there is no doubt that Jones has put a lot of work into doing accurate research”. Being a film noir buff  myself, I can only agree with Jones’ note - ‘Steely Dan were the closest thing in rock music to film noir’. Indeed so, as the soundtracks to the film noir genre were often jazz themed. Examples of which are Miles Davis’ improvised score to the French film Elevator to the Gallows (Lift to the Scaffold in the UK), Johnny Mandel’s I Want to Live (1959) as well as John Dankworth’s The Servant (1963).  One could argue that Steely Dan’s 1970s' output would carry on this practice as they also did in utilising jazz musicians like Victor Feldman, Tom Scott, Pete Christlieb, Steve Gadd and Wayne Shorter as well as funky soulsters such as Bernard Purdie, Chuck Rainey and Paul Griffin.

Jones also fully explores the love and devotion for jazz by Becker and Fagen. Nightfly was actually the radio moniker of Mort Fega a legendary jazz radio host on WEVD FM in NYC in the early 1960s.  A programme Fagen listened to regularly as a teenager.

There is also a wonderful discussion on page 248 of Donald and Walter’s appearance on pianist Marian McPartland’s long running radio show Piano Jazz in 2002 on NPR (America’s equivalent to the BBC).  When asked who his favourite guitarist was, Walter answered Grant Green. Not a name one would have expected from a member of a rock band. At the end of the programme Donald and Marian performed a duet of Mercer Ellington’s Things Ain’t What They Used To Be, which was one of the few occasions where they recorded a jazz tune apart from their version of Ellington’s East St Louis Toodle-oo from their Pretzel Logic LP in 1974.

Nightfly is a comprehensive, critical biography that will appeal not only to both Fagen and Steely Dan devotees but to any music fans that relish the behind the scenes insights of the vinyl era. Frank Griffith*

Peter Jones, Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen Chicago Review Press. ISBN-10: 1641606878

*Please note that a paperback edition will be published in April 2024 with an added chapter examining Fagen’s songwriting.

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