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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.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.
Tue 18: Phil Bancroft’s Beautiful Storm @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £13.20 & £11.00.. A JNE-Gem Arts co-promotion.

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: 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: 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.

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

Friday, June 21, 2024

Album review: Catherine Russell & Sean Mason - My Ideal (Dot Time Records)

Catherine Russell (vocal); Sean Mason (piano)

Whenever a singer and a pianist make a duo recording inevitably  the benchmark is that legendary album of Gershwin tunes made over seventy odd years ago by Ella and Ellis Larkins. Some have come close but most miss by a country mile.

If this one misses, and I personally don't think it does, then it's by inches maybe a centimetre. 

Yes, it's that good possibly even surpassing Russell's 2022 album Send For Me which was one of my top vocal albums of that year and 2022 was a vintage year for jazz vocalists containing, as it did, albums by Samara Joy and Petra Van Nuis amongst others.

The voice is jazz perfect with that blues tinged late night Harlem edge to it that all the great jazz singers have or had. The songs are a mix of the known and the unknown but, once heard, are unlikely to be forgotten. The double entendres of  Ain't Got Nobody to Grind my Coffee are playfully risqué with Mason's piano reminiscent of Fats with Caroline Johnson or Spencer Williams with Clara Smith back in the 1920s.

My Ideal is one of those ballads that have yet to reach saturation point. I hope it never does except when sung by Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra or Catherine Russell.

Thanks to Sean Mason, Fats Waller is ever present although there are also nods towards Ray Charles, Earl Hines, James P and, maybe genetically to Russell's father Luis Russell. However, Mason is no mere clone but adds his own DNA to that of the aforementioned.

A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid is another delight. Written by James P. Johnson with lyrics by Andy Razaf and popularised by Fats Waller it contains the great line I'll be your dustpan if you'll be my broom - they don't write 'em like that any more (unfortunately!) 

It isn't released until August but the wait will be worth it and may well prompt you to pop along to Ronnie's where she appears on Sept. 30. Lance

A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid ; I Don't Need no DoctorMy Ideal; You Stayed Away Too Long; On the Sentimental Side; Ain't That Love; The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing; Ain't Got Nobody to Grind my Coffee; You Can Depend on me; South to a Warmer Place; Waitin' For a Train to Come in. 

1 comment :

ibwilliamsi said...

Sean is an AMAZING artist. I can't wait to hear this album!

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