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Bebop Spoken There

Trevor Mires: ''My mum is a Dean Martin fan: I'm not, so I would grab my skateboard and get out of the house whenever I heard "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime." ". (Jazzwise, 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

17972 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 293 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (April 22).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT! Duo performance.
Fri 25: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums).
Fri 25: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton Mill. 6:00-9:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Fri 25: Struggle Buggy @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. Rhythm & blues.
Fri 25: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £20.30., £18.00. All-star big band.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums). An Opus 4 Jazz Club event.

Sat 26: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Darlington. 12 noon. Free (donations).
Sat 26: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 26: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ Elvet Methodist Church, Durham. 7:30pm. Tickets: £12.00. + bf. Duo performance.
Sat 26: Neil Cowley Trio @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £22.50.
Sat 26: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 27: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 27: Andrea Vicari Trio @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Bradford (drums).
Sun 27: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 27: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Xenopoulos, Edis, Paul Susans, Russ Morgan.
Sun 27: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 27: JustKing Jones @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £17.50. JustKing Jones (alto sax, soprano sax); Jordan Williams (piano); Jason Clotter (bass); Malcolm Charles (drums). Ace NYC outfit!
Sun 27: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 27: Swing Manouche @ Warkworth Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00. Tickets from 01665 711388.
Sun 27: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Xenopoulos, Edis, Ken Marley, Russ Morgan.

Mon 28: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 29: ???

Wed 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 30: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 30: International Jazz Day @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £16.00.; £14.00. adv.. Feat. Guido Spannocchi, John Pope & Steve Hanley + Take it to the Bridge participants + Open Mic Night participants.

MAY 2025

Thu 01: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Member’s Contribution.
Thu 01: Alabaster de Plume @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 01: Living in Shadows + OUTRI @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 01: The Shayo Experiment @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Shayo Oshodi & Liam Oliver.
Thu 01: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free.

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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