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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

17719 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 39 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Jan. 15).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 21: ???

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.
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: 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.

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

Thursday, January 09, 2025

Album review: Glebe – Gaudi (ECN/Propermusic)

Chris Bland (piano, keyboards); Kieran Gunter (electric and acoustic guitars; Dom Pusey (tenor and soprano saxophone, bass clarinet); Jack Tustin (bass); Filippo Galli (drums, percussion); Tara Minton (vocals, harp, lyrics); Clare Wheeler, Francesca Confortini (vocals); Tom Smith (soprano sax, flute)

This is a new guitarist/pianist led band out of the Leeds College of Music and this is their first album. The interweb points to similarly led ensembles the Pat Metheny Group (Metheny/Lyle Mays) and the Impossible Gentlemen (Mike Walker/ Gwilym Simcock) as influences and you can see where the interweb is coming from with that. There is a similar widescreen, panoramic vision and new music that blends jazz with hints of prog-rock, third-stream, some smooth soul (Ruby) and that point where the Doobie Brothers meet Steely Dan. (I like Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers; it’s not intended as a negative comment).

Bland and Gunter wrote the music between them and its given extra colour by Dom Pusey’s sax on most tracks, (Iain Dixon did the same for the Impossible Gentlemen) whilst the bass of Jack Tustin provides the propellant when extra drive is needed, as on You Can’t Write Tears. Kirkstall Abbey is a fine piece of jazz fusion which allows both leaders to step forward and solo, whilst their influences can be heard they are both strong players; the track closes with a stomping, intimidating, full band section with Pusey’s tenor and bass clarinet to the fore showing that there is some fury mixed in with the pastoral.

They can do lyrical as well; L’Iseran (named after an Alpine pass, fact lovers) is a feature, first for Bland’s elegant piano solo which surrenders to some swooping sax before Gunter’s spiky guitar solo; Tustin’s bass is in there as well, keeping it all rooted. At the other end of the spectrum is Gaudi’s Blues, which is a bit more down and dirty with a driving stabbing solo from Gunter over a loping groove that breaks into a Blue Note r’n’b swing with some thumping piano from Bland around which Pusey wraps some aggressive tenor.

The band rolls into Il Ragno Della Tomba on the back of Tustin’s acoustic bass and the bassman gets to shine with a dancing solo to which Bland adds delicate piano runs; subdued hand drums from Galli add extra depth. Gunter adds another sweeping and swooping solo before Bland’s intricate solo fills the middle section of the piece. Pusey’s soprano solo is a thing of rare beauty. A very spare Outro sees Bland playing the silences as much as the notes as a dramatic, stumbling piano takes us to the close.

I like this album a lot, but then again the influences cited elsewhere are firm favourites here at Sayer Towers. Having said that, the leader’s imaginations transcend these influences to create a strong imaginative album on its own merits.

The Marlbank website HERE has information about the band, a couple of videos and even a video from the Impossible Gentlemen, all of which are worth your time. Dave Sayer

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