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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, April 29, 2024

Andrew McCormack Trio featuring Kyle Eastwood @ the Glasshouse, Gateshead - April 28

(© Pam)

Andrew McCormack (piano); Kyle Eastwood (bass); Rod Youngs (drums)

The signs in the Glasshouse on Sunday night directed all those in pork pie hats, roll neck jumpers, posh frocks and co-respondents shoes to the left and the big room for the Postmodern Jukebox whilst those of us more modestly attired to sit in the dark turned right to Sage 2 in search of more contemporary sounds.

Apparently it was 2014 when McCormack was last here (as the photo on THIS PAGE attests) and 2011 when Eastwood brought a group to that year’s Jazz Festival. Tonight’s gig was mainly in support of McCormack’s fine 2022 album, Terra Firma and nearly all the music was from that.

Opener Brooklyn Memoir, was a pastoral blues with a slightly sinister edge; McCormack’s solo is full of '60s snap and zest, Eastwood plays a swinging funky bass and Youngs drives powerfully from the back, (musically, if not geographically).

Confirmation is a Charlie Parker tune with swinging flurries in McCormack’s dancing, witty, Peterson-esque solo that sounds as if it had been transposed from one of Parker’s own solos. Eastwood carries that joy and swing into his solo. Local lad Sting gets the writers credit for Fragile, the next piece. McCormack and Eastwood share the melody with the bass shadowing the piano and completing the lines. It’s lush, romantic and, yes, fragile, Eastwood developing melodies of his own, climbing and surrounding McCormack’s piano lines. An intricate knotty piano solo builds to a climactic pounding before a return to the delicacy of the opening line of the song. 

McCormack described Somebody Else’s Song as both his greatest hit on streaming services and one that he was sure someone else had also written. It’s a pastoral folk tune, relaxed and delicate, full of nostalgia for simpler times; the piano is supported by waves of cymbals conjured up by Youngs’ brush work. 

Fake News raises the temperature from its opening skittering drums and cymbals and driving bass with McCormack throwing out musical shapes and shards. It’s all angles with Youngs dropping bombs to power it along behind McCormack’s percussive solo. Youngs assembles a solo from spare snatches into rolling thunder and lightning strikes of cymbals before a series of short delicate runs from McCormack bring it home. 

Clementine Dream is an elegant waltz, perhaps the second cousin of Someday My Prince Will Come, and sounds like a show tune. McCormack’s playing is dense, packed with flurries of notes; Youngs playing is so closely in step with him. Better to Have Loved is an elegy for those lost in the pandemic. Eastwood opens with a long solo before he leaves the floor to McCormack whose dense, rich solo is laden with tragedy. Youngs eschews the sticks and plays the kit with his hands. It sounds like it belongs in the classical repertoire and, whilst a jazz mood begins to dominate, it is still stark and spare with a funereal closing passage. 

(© Pam)
A change of mood for I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me which closes the main set. It’s bright and romantic; what April is supposed to sound like. A classic piece of bebop, it’s pulled out of shape by McCormack’s angular playing and Youngs’ off-kilter percussion with Eastwood at the centre holding it all together as the drummer revels in the freedom to roam. A bit of Monk as an encore to much applause and its coats on and out of the Glasshouse and into a cold, penetrating easterly breeze blowing from the Baltic.

Before the main event we had a short, unaccompanied set from local saxophonist Thomas Dixon. He elicited collective ‘ohs’ and ‘oohs’ when he came on stage and cracked his knuckles before he started. Opening on tenor with a series of low pitched rumbles, he uses the keys of the instrument as his percussive accompaniment as the tune unfurls like leaves in Spring. He climbs up the scales to a series of piercing staccato flurries of notes, short phrases that wouldn’t sound so stark and radical as part of a band.

At one point he removes the neck from the instrument and plays a mournful solo into the cupped palm of his hand. His second piece is on alto. A dancing Mexican-tinged piece opening with quick fire shots in the dark, it also incorporates some fine blues wailing. Third and last sees him back on tenor and sees him transition from a swinging opening, through some intense scrappling flurries to building up to a closing wail. Dave Sayer

1 comment :

Pam said...

Great review of a tremendous gig and nice to finally meet the prolific Dave Sayer, always enjoy your words.
Pam x

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