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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.

Wed 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 23: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 23: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED!

Thu 24: Mary Coughlan @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £33.80. Blues, jazz etc.
Thu 24: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

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: ???

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

Saturday, April 13, 2024

Double Album Review: Sun Ra – At the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977

Sun Ra (piano, organ, leader); John Gilmore (tenor sax); Marshall Allen (alto sax, flute, Kora); Danny Davis (alto sax, flute); Elo Omoe (alto/bass clarinet); Danny Thompson (baritone sax, flute); Michael Ray (trumpet); Ahmed Abdullah (trumpet); Emmett McDonald (bass trumpet); Vincent Chancey (French horn); Dale Williams (guitar on 1976 Recording Only); Richard William (bass); Luqman Ali (drums); Eddie Thomas (drums, vocals); James Jackson (ancient infinity drum, oboe); Atakatune (congas); June Tyson (vocals); Cheryl Banks-Smith (vocal); Wisteria El Moondew (Judith Holton) (vocal).

Back in the 1990s men were, apparently, from Mars and women from Venus. However, one famous interloper came from the sixth rock from the sun decades before the book. Herman Blount changed his name to Sun Ra and the Arkestra was born. Amazingly the Arkestra sailed on and we were fortunate enough to have seen it in full flight in Gateshead back in pre-covid days when the then Sage still had a Jazz Festival. It was a wail(!) of a time. Big frocks and bright tunes! 

Herman may have ascended back to the stars in 1993 but his legacy lives on and he is the driving influence of Afrofuturism, one of the major themes in the works of stars like Idris Ackamoor, Kamasi Washington and Thundercat. This recognition in turn drives the demand for hitherto unheard works, including this live album which has been exhumed and is released on LP and CD on Record Store Day this year (April 20 for LP. Like the egg of the audiophile curate both the music and the recording are good in parts and not so good in others. Parts still sound bafflingly avant-garde today, whilst others display a swing band in full voice showing Ra’s love for the music Herman grew up listening to, predominantly Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington. Even when Ra plays around with the format and various parts of the band seem totally detached and heading in different directions his roots still show through.

The opener, New Beginnings, is well positioned and well titled to raise a number of immediate concerns. It is a loose collection of flute lines, sporadic drumming, almost furtive sax and a brief rolling bass line. It sounds, unfortunately, as if it were recorded far, far away and is only marginally above bootleg quality. Similar concerns exist as we roll into View From Another Dimension, which is led by a repeated riff on the hand drums before Ra’s glistening keyboards take over making the sorts of sounds that were big in the ‘70s and we are readying for take-off. It becomes a joust between keys and Richard Williams’ earthquake bass playing before the horns join in. This is detached free-form blowing, without a safety net, with horns and drums probing and challenging.

Visitor’s Approach has us in much more familiar territory. A few more of those 70s organ sounds turn into a swinging riff and no matter how hard the band blow and the corners they attempt to turn with the arrangements, this is still firmly anchored in swing. The solos owe more to Coltrane and other ‘60s iconoclasts but there is a solid reliable pulse and some of the crowd sound overjoyed in their whoops and hollers at being caught in the full face blast of this band.

Ankhnaton has a similar feel with a solid groove behind freer soloing but there is still a snap and bounce to the music. It’s taking us places but we haven’t lost sight of the ground. Some of the trumpet playing raises the roof and reaches a pitch that only Lassie can here, and at times the sound is a little muddy with the drums sounding especially rough, however, the energy shines through. We get a break from all this futurism for Rose Room, a 1917 composition that Ellington recorded in 1932 and it sounds of its era though this is a bright and joyful rendition. It loses wind from its sales with Ra’s organ solo, a slump from the drive of the horns that have powered the opening five minutes and it’s good to hear them come rushing back in after the leader’s solo.

Moonship Journey opens with organ and chanting before some meaty tenor playing from Gilmore. It’s another piece of strutting, swinging rhythm and blues which he wails wildly over, punching holes in the sky and playing around over and through the rest of the band as they sing manically away like an old-fashioned revival. The chanting returns and we are again implored to ‘Get ready for the moonship journey……’ Velvet closes out the 1977 section of our programme. The band are in full flow, Gilmore’s soloing is ferocious but the organ playing is weak in the face of all this fury.

Back in 1976 we open with Calling Planet Earth & The Shadow World. We are further out now than we have hitherto been. The first half of the piece is challenging disconnected wailing from across the band before a propulsive effort from the drummers add some structure. The whole piece switches between sections of unbridled individual free blowing and drum driven charges. Possibly not to everyone’s taste.

Theme of the Stargazers gives us heavy duty organ that could be from a piece of sci-fi dystopia and more chanting and a mind bending guitar solo. It leads into Space is the Place with its joyous chanting, the band low down in the mix behind them though there is space for some low down clarinet and baritone sax. This was part of the encore so both audience and band are in celebratory mood by this point in proceedings. Playing on the audience’s good mood the band indulge in three minutes of intergalactic vocal gibberish from trumpeter Akh El Tabah before the handclaps and chanting of Greetings from The 21st Century takes us home. The second disc of the 2 CD set seems to be an audio record of a visual event and you probably had to be there to get the most out of it. Whilst the music is great on the first disc, the second needs the dancers, the outfits and the bonhomie of a lubricated audience during the best part of the evening to really cut through.

I was concerned about the recording quality and some of the music the first time I listened to this album but it overpowers those anxieties on subsequent listens. My advice is play the first disc twice, play it loud and set your ears to fun. It’s not as strange a journey as you might fear, after all it’s only 1,566,137,481 kilometres to Saturn. Dave Sayer

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