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Bebop Spoken There

John McLaughlin: '' A Love Supreme coincided with my search for meaning in life". (DownBeat, March 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

17873 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 194 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (March 14).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED PERMANENTLY!
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Nicknames.
Thu 20: Terri Green Experience @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.90.
Thu 20: King Bees @ The Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Superb blues band.
Thu 20: Lindsay Hannon Trio @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Hannon’s ‘Tom Waits for No Man’ set.
Thu 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 21: Paul Skerritt @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Giles Strong Quartet @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Fri 21: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Featuring special guest Martin Litton (piano).

Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30pm-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 22: Swamp Stomp String Band @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm.
Sat 22: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sun 23: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 23: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Mississippi MacDonald @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. Blues.
Sun 23: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: The Great Deceivers @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Tom Atkinson & co play King Crimson (1969-1974). Atkinson (guitar); Josh Bentham (alto sax); Stu Dawson (bass); Jeff Armstrong (drums).

Mon 24: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 24: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Tue 25: Fred Wesley & the New JB’s @ The Cluny. 7:30pm (doors). £27.50. POSTPONED! New date Wednesday 26 November.

Thu 27: Hannabiell & Midnight Blue @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 27: Michael Littlefield & Scott Taylor @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Superb blues duo.

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

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Album Review: Julian Costello Quartet – And All The Birds Were Set Free (33 Jazz)

Julian Costello (tenor/soprano saxes); John Turville (pianos); Andy Hamill (double bass, harmonica); Tom Hooper (drums) + Georgia Mancio (vocals).

This album is definitely a grower. It has moved from acceptable background music to the front of the stage with every listening. There is some very fine playing, especially from Julian Costello and John Turville and it was nice to ‘catch up’ with Turville after not hearing much by him in recent years. Costello has, for the most part, a lovely flowing style, forceful but not overwhelming. Don’t be misled into thinking he’s a smooth operator, though. He has a big voice and his sound, unless he is sharing the metaphorical front line with Turville’s piano, dominates. Turville is the other star of this session. I remember him from a concert at Newcastle University back in 2013 and was hugely impressed then. This recording only serves to increase my admiration for his playing.

Opener, Why, is the first of two tracks featuring Georgia Mancio’s voice, which is a thing of beauty in itself. She rides the lyric line perfectly and Turville’s piano rises and falls alongside her vocal line. Costello matches her for lyricism when his tenor arrives. 

The title track comes next and is a game of two halves. We open with a long blowing section from Costello full of Dexter-esque force before the band stops on a sixpence and a brief, ominous, bass solo leads into a passage with Turville out front and centre all heavy chording and angular runs.

The smaller horn is unpacked for The Octopus, a track that sounds more avian than sub-aquatic. While the sax lines float, Turville, again, does much of the heavy lifting behind with more dense, elegant runs. With the bass pushed into the background, Costello and Turville’s instruments fly freely, closely intertwined, rising and falling together.

Gecko is a slab of jazz of the highest quality with the band romping away joyously for much of the track. It opens with a punchy riff on tenor, picked up by the rest of the band. It seems more introspective than the previous tracks, with Costello initially subdued but building from this softer opening, the other pushing him on as he spirals upwards into a wail. As Costello drops out, the rhythm section show just how tight they are. Hooper is rolling in the background, sometimes stuttering as if he is almost losing his step, but never doing so, solid bass fills in the gaps as Turville’s solo leads us back to the opening riff.

Mancio is back for Sunflowers, which features her voice in a perfect segway with Costello’s sax as his horn picks up her intonation and phrasing and carries it into his solo. She’s part of the team, passing the baton on. Turville’s solo is light and elegant, Costello returns and shares the lead line with Mancio again. It’s a joy to listen to.

Hooper is unleashed for the opening salvos of London is Blue before a punchy probing solo from Costello, still in full voice on the tenor. Turville’s solo is dense and knotty, but always with a narrative drive behind it. He’s matched in complexity by Hooper’s drums which could have been higher in the mix to really make them crack.

Song For Anna is a lazy, late-night ballad for those occasions when you wear a bow tie and let it hang loose in a dimly lit night club, smoke (from a vape?) rising from the ash tray. There are further echoes of long tall Dexter in Costello’s languid solo. 

The (surely) ironically named There’s Always One Track You Fast Forward is a departure in that it is all angles and is a clear left turn from the ballad that preceded it. Costello sounds like he’s playing round corners and the drums and piano are the walls he’s trying to get round, both match each other for the percussive weight of their playing while Costello swoops and dives on soprano. After that angular interlude we are back in the Club for No Dinosaurs Here with Costello on full fat tenor and Turville’s crystalline solo elegant and intricate enough to distract Rick Blaine from Ilsa Lund. I suspect that Costello and friends were getting a bit demob happy in their titling as the closer follows thematically on from No Dinosaurs. Dippy the Diplodicus takes the pace up slightly from the cellar bar but drops back into relaxed indolence, punctuated by high pitched wails as Costello essays his closing comments on tenor.

All The Birds Were Set Free is out now. You can get a taster on Julian Costello’s website, on the Homepage of which there is a video of the band performing the title song from the album. Dave Sayer

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