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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

17923 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 244 of them this year alone and, so far, 91 this month (March 31).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

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.

Fri 04: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 04: Ruth Lambert Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Fri 04: Tom McGuire & the Brassholes @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00.
Fri 04: Nicolas Meier’s Infinity Group + Spirit of Jeff Beck @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm.

Sat 05: Tenement Jazz Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 05: Sleep Suppressor @ Head of Steam, Newcastle. 5:30-6:00pm.
Sat 05: King Bees @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Raymond MacDonald & Jer Reid @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle. 6:00-9:30pm. £7.72., £1.00. (minimum donation). MacDonald & Reid + Objections + Yotuns.
Sat 05: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Kamasi Washington @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. £33.00.
Sat 05: Vermont Big Band @ The Seahorse, Whitley Bay. 7:30pm. Tickets: £10.00 (from the venue).
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 06: Learning & Participation Showcase @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm (1:00pm doors). Free. Featuring participants from Play More Jazz! Play More Folk! Blue Jam Singers & more.
Sun 06: Joe Steels Group @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Ferg Kilsby, Joe Steels, Ben Lawrence, Paul Susans, John Hirst.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Hooch, Quayside, Newcastle. 6:00pm.
Sun 06: Leeway @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Tannery jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Wed 09: Anatole Muster Trio @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £17.50., £12.50. concs.
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED?

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

Friday, April 05, 2024

Album review: Espen Berg – Water Fabric (Odin Records)

Espen Berg (piano); Hayden Powell (trumpet, flugelhorn); Harpreet Bansal (violin); Ellie Mäkelä (viola); Joakim Munkner, (cello); Per Oddvar Johansen (drums).

There seems to be a lot of albums around at the moment where the usual midfield of a bass has been replaced with a string section and here comes another addition to that particular stream. Whatever your concerns about that may be the album is worth having for Berg’s piano playing alone. It’s hard not to think of this as a typical ECM recording in that we have unusual voicings, a trumpeter/flugelhorn player with Kenny Wheeler-ish tones and a Jarrett-esque pianist. But it is a bit livelier than that. Whilst some pieces are ‘moods’ others are more sprightly, perhaps dealing with folklore of trolls and other Norwegian mythical creatures. I may, however, be dealing in stereotypes here.

It opens with delicate piano and glacial strings, consistent with the ice patterns on the cover. The piano gently develops and pulls the strings along with it, growing and insinuating their way until Powell lifts it further with a punchy trumpet solo and the instruments wrap around each other as he soars.

Circumzenithal lifts us further with the drums providing extra energy and momentum, indeed Johansen shares a moment or two of call and response with the rest of the band, his drums being answered by bold, melodramatic statements from the others.

1914 opens with a pastoral idyll on piano, whilst the trumpet soars above. It’s all about the innocence and the ignorance of what was to follow in the subsequent four years. Two minutes in the expected catastrophe develops; the drummer is dropping bombs and there is a flurry of notes from the others before solo piano portrays a balletic dance of death, supported by mournful strings. That mood is carried forward into a long cello coda, which calls to mind Elgar’s Cello Concerto which covered similar themes in similar tones.

Hydrophobic lifts the mood; everything has stepped up a gear, the strings sound a bit thin lacking the heft and solidity that a bass would give. In compensation they are so light footed that when they whirl around Berg’s piano in a flow of increasing complexity, responding to him or leaping to the front and falling back; it’s a joy to hear. There is a fluidity to the piano playing at times in its tumble of ideas that recalls Berg’s recent solo albums.

After the dramatic rough and tumble of Duelling Rivers comes the epic closing Three Point Suite. Opening with barely perceptible piano and a cello drone, various fragments are slowly added to the mix. Powell adds a brief invocation of morning over gently rolling piano. The piece steadily, but very slowly increases in impact until a brief break out leads to complex intricate work by the pianist backed by optimistic strings that conjures up the old American West. The writing for the strings is exemplary in the way they work with the piano, working both with and in contrast to Berg. The trumpet contributes additional light and shade, circling round some of the lines taken by the strings.

It’s another of those ‘Is this jazz?’ albums. It follows on from the ambition shown by Berg’s solo albums and suggests a musician bursting with ideas and ambition about both music and form. We’ll wait and see where he goes next, but, I for one will be following his next steps closely.

The album came out towards the end of 2023 and is available through most retailers. I bought mine off a nice man in a basement in Soho and he wrote his name on it, which was nice. Dave Sayer

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