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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17805 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 126 of them this year alone and, so far, 51 this month (Feb.16).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Matt Forster Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones - 1975.
Thu 20: Renegade Brass Band @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 20: Orange Claw Hammer + Peony @ The Globe, Newcastle.7:30pm. Orange Claw Hammer play Captain Beefheart.
Thu 20: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Featuring special guest Zoë Gilby.

Fri 21: JazzMain @ 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: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. TBC.
Fri 21: Emma Rawicz w. Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

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: Mississippi MacDonald @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. Blues.
Sat 22: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Old Cinema Laundrette, Durham. 7:45pm. £16.50. SOLD OUT!
Sat 22: Michael Woods @ 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: Mark Williams Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 23: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 23: Mississippi MacDonald @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. Blues.
Sun 23: Mu Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 23: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

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: Yusef Lateef - Atlantis Lullaby. The Concert Fom Avignon

Yusef Lateef (soprano/tenor sax, flute); Kenny Barron (piano); Bob Cunningham (bass); Albert "Tootie" Heath (drums). 

Another Record Store Day double album that has never previously been heard unless you were at the concert in Avignon, France on July 19, 1972. Maybe some of our readers were there but for those who weren't this will give you an idea of what you missed.

Kenny Barron's Inside Atlantis gets the show on the road with an extended tenor workout from the leader that doesn't take any prisoners - not even Trane and Rollins! Barron and Cunningham throw in their two-pennyworth (plus!) and Tootie Heath reminds us what a great loss to jazz it was when he passed just nine days ago.

Lateef thanks the audience and name-checks the band - in English. The French seem to know what he is talking about. 

Barron notches up more compositional royalties with A Flower. A piano/flute duet, it has a depth of feeling and empathy between the two players that suggest something by Ellington or Strayhorn.

Lateef's Yusef's Mood, A rocking twelve bar that lasts 17:22 minutes, has Barron in barrelhouse mode with Tootie playing New Orleans street parade style drums. I can imagine the crowd dancing in the aisles and having the time of their lives. Nor does the party stop when Yusef returns. He literally 'rocks the joint' with the audience, or is it the band?, chanting 'all night long'. Those seem like prophetic words and when it does end in a musical free-for-all I'm thinking the applause will be of similar duration and I'm not far wrong.

Tootie's Lowland Lullaby, an  Indian flute and bass duet, at 3:55, is the shortest track. It's a soporific, relaxed composition which no doubt gives the audience the chance to recharge after the exertions of the previous number.

Roy Brooks' Eboness opens with Lateef playing flute over a  jazz-rock rhythm. Eastern flavoured fluting plus some growling reminiscent of Ian Anderson but jazzier. Bassist Cunningham is the featured soloist on this track reminding me of just what a tower of strength he is.

I'm Getting Sentimental Over You (George Bassman-Ned Washington) is, in my opinion, one the greatest ballads ever written and Lateef''s tenor solo does it justice. Pure magic. Barron and Cunningham are equally bewitched as they turn the tune upside down. A saxophone masterclass to rank alongside any of the great tenor saxophone ballad performances.

The Untitled. Composed by Barron, it begins at a speed that would have a metronome popping its spring. However, after that initial burst it goes into an out of tempo dirge. As the track is 27 minutes long I figured this wouldn't last forever - French audiences wouldn't stand for it - particularly as Lateef remarks in his introduction that it looks like rain. Things begin to pick up when Tootie is let off the leash. Barron tinkles the ivories and Yusef chips in with some birdlike calls on flute.

Barron then has some reflective moments during which he merges Art Tatum with Cecil Taylor. I can understand why he didn't give the piece a more descriptive title. There is just so much going on. With five minutes to go, all hell breaks loose before the quartet gets around to some hard swinging and an explosive last few bars. Encore!, Encore! shouts the crowd and Yusef, finally remembering he is in France. replies with Merci beaucoupLance

Yusef Lateef: Atlantis Lullaby will be available on April 20 as a two-LP package and as a two-CD package on April 26. Both with glossy 16-page booklet on Elemental Music.

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