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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 2024).

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

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sat 04: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Square, Middlesbrough. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 04: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. Xmas party (rescheduled from early December).

Sun 05: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 05: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 05: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, jazz & blues.
Sun 05: Papa G’s Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 09: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: John H Hammond.
Thu 09: FILM: Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 2:35pm. Documentary (dir. Johan Grimonprez) ‘about jazz, (de)colonial history and activism featuring Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie’.
Thu 09: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 09: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 09: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session now monthly, next one Thursday 2nd Feb, then first Thursday in the month thereafter.

Fri 10: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. 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, January 03, 2025

Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club - Jan. 3

Jim McBriarty (alto/soprano sax, clarinet, vocals); Alan Marshall (tenor sax, clarinet); David Gray (trombone, vocals); Jeremy McMurray (piano); Alan Rudd (bass); Ian Stocks (drums); Olive Rudd (vocals)

Hell and high water, not to mention Metro disruptions and the threat of snow on the  horizon didn't stop Classic Swing's fanbase turning out for the first Friday session of 2025. The traumatic journey home was but a minor blip in a very enjoyable afternoon.*

Kicking off as per with their signature tune, Tommy Moran's eponymously titled Classic Swing, it soon became evident the band were 'up for it' with cutting solos all round.

Thursday, January 02, 2025

Album review: Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band - Treasury: Volume 1 (Turtle Bay Records)

Terry Waldo (piano); Mike Davis (trumpet/cornet); Ricky Alexander (clarinet, soprano sax); Jay Lepley (drums); Colin Hancock (cornet, tenor sax); Jim Fryer, Sam Chess (trombone); Jerron Paxton (banjo, vocals); Nick Russo, Arnt Arntzen (banjo); Evan Arntzen, Dennis Lichtman (clarinet); Jay Rattman (bass sax); Brian Nalepka (bass); Tatiana Eva-Marie, Veronica Swift (vocal). (Collective)

Slick, modern Dixieland reminiscent of the old Rampart Street Paraders, Bob Scobey's Frisco Jazz Band or, more recently, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, featuring various combinations based around leader/pianist Waldo, Davis, reedman Alexander and drummer Lepley.

It's a fun album with spiky solos from the horns, some of whom are not unknown to those hardy souls who make their annual pilgrimage to Whitley Bay for the Classic Jazz Party, as well as  some feetwarming examples of Waldo's mastery of earlier jazz piano styles.

Album review: Edison Herbert - All I Need

Edison Herbert (guitar); Neville Malcolm (bass); Winston Clifford (drums); Sean Hargreaves (piano - tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) + guests Cherisse Scott (vocals - track 4); Kim Cypher (tenor sax - track 5); Kevin Robinson (flugelhorn - track 9); Ben Gilbert (piano - tracks 1, 2, 5, 8); Chris Wells (drums - tracks 4, 5); Graham Maynard (piano - track 7)

All I Need comprises nine tracks, six of them written by Edison Herbert. The title track typifies guitarist Herbert's approach - bright and breezy, his sound bubbling over with glass half full optimism. Bassist Neville Malcolm and drummer Winston Clifford are established names and Herbert's guest contributors include Kim Cypher (tenor sax) and, formerly of the BSH parish, pianist Ben Gilbert.

Wednesday, January 01, 2025

Rossano Sportiello: Live at the Flat in Greenwich Village (#122) - a NYE livestream

Rossano Sportiello's weekly lockdown livestream from his flat in Greenwich Village proved to be one of the few plus points of Covid times. As things began to return to something like normal (whatever 'normal' is), Sportiello, in common with musicians across the globe, took to the road to play to a real, live - as opposed to a livestream - audience. However, old habits die hard and Italian born, NYC resident pianist Sportiello has, whenever possible, continued to present livestreams. 

Album review: Greg Abate - Road to Forever (Whaling City Sound)

Greg Abate (soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, flute); Tim Ray (piano, electric piano); John Lockwood (acoustic bass, electric bass); Mark Walker (drums, percussion)

One gets the impression Greg Abate is permanently on the road. 250+ dates a year takes the man from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, coast to coast USA, not to mention annual trips (July and November) to the UK. Perhaps the album title of this 2017 release - Road to Forever - is Abate's tacit acknowledgment of his globetrotting existence (in pursuit of music-making). Take the Crowell Train, a contrafact of Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise, is dedicated to California based, fellow musician Ken Crowell. And then there's Mr. Parker, without question referencing the pioneering bebop alto saxophonist, Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker, indeed it's a contrafact of Confirmation

Album review: Xhosa Cole - On a Modern Genius Vol. 1 (Stoney Lane Records)

Xhosa Cole (tenor sax); Liberty Styles (tap dancing); Steve Saunders (guitar); Josh Vadiveloo (bass); Nathan England-Jones (drums) + Heidi Vogel (vocal on Come Sunday)

Tap dancing on record isn't new. The first time I heard it was on a Doris Day recording of Crazy Rhythm. Doris did the singing and Gene Nelson did the dancing. Norman Granz also recorded Fred Astaire dancing to the JATP class of '52 and, of course, Ellington featured Bunny Briggs hoofing on David Danced Before the Lord on one of Duke's Sacred Concert recordings. That composition is actually an uptempo version of Come Sunday so with On a Modern Genius Vol. 1 we've come full circle.

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