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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

17777 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 98 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Feb.8).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Tue 11: Steve Summers Quintet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.

Wed 12: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 12: Jam session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 12: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 12: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 13: Student Performances @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 4:00pm. Free. Inc. Olly Styles (tenor sax).
Thu 13: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: Artist Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Hannabiell & Midnight Blue.
Thu 13: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.

Fri 14: John Rowland Trio @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 12:30-1:30pm. £5.00. at the door. New second Friday in the month concert series.
Fri 14: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 14: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 14: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 14: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 14: Archipelago + Anna Tempest @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £8.00.
Fri 14: Paul Jones & Dave Kelly @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. Rhythm & blues.
Fri 14: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm.
Fri 14: Jazz Sabbath @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 15: Elkie Brooks @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘The Long Farewell Tour’.
Sat 15: Milne Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: BBC Introducing NE X MOBO Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Jambone, Knats, Rivkala, SwanNek.
Sun 16: The Shayo Experience @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 16: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 16: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

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

Monday, February 03, 2025

Album review: Nishla Smith & Tom Harris - Live in Manchester (digital download)

Nishla Smith (vocals); Tom Harris (piano)

A pleasant vignette from a singer not entirely unknown in the north east. In fact not at all unknown in the north east if you were a regular at the old Jazz Café jam sessions, or at the Globe when, strangely, she shared the bill with the Tenement Jazz Band, or if you were at the Sage (now the Glasshouse) when she was part of the faculty of that cultural centre's musical education programme. 

Now firmly established in Manchester this is her second album to be featured here after her 2021 release Friends With Monsters. That one was by her quintet and featured mainly original material. This time it's pared down to just piano accompaniment and some good old good ones. 

This is where the challenge begins. When you already have definitive versions by Billie, Ella and other iconic songbirds do you want yet another?

Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe perhaps - nothing like being decisive!

By and large the answer is yes. Nishla brings her own take on the songs which is just enough to allow them to stand on their own feet.

Someday my Prince Will Come is slow and dreamy. The surprise, off-key, note at the end is perfectly in context wistfully suggesting her prince has not yet arrived.

Jim, somehow or other I never got around to hearing Billie's version. The only other time I've heard it was in some long forgotten movie sung by some long forgotten singer so Nishla wins hands down on this one!

Another plus factor in Nishla's favour is the support, often quite musically humourous from Tom Harris on piano. He has an impressive solo feature on Jitterbug Waltz.

Tea For Two has my favourite verse of all the GASbook standards and this version is no exception. Interestingly, Nishla changes the lyric of the chorus so that it's the man who bakes the sugar cake that she takes for all the boys to see - what is the world coming too!? Harris goes into cha-cha mode during his solo.

Make Someone  Happy - a nice easy swing that does what the song title requests.

Don't Explain is sung with feeling and comes closer to Lady Day than any of them without losing Nishla's own identity. 

Smile sees the album home. Check it out - release date is Feb. 24 and there's an album launch party at NQ Jazz, Manchester on that same day. The album, btw, is one of those pesky digital download things. Lance

1 comment :

Russell said...

Editor-in-Chief LL makes reference to Nishla's appearance at a jam session at the old Jazz Cafe in Newcastle. In his review of the jam session in question (7 August 2018) he wrote about Nishla singing Don't Explain. '...the silenced room said it all'. It did just that, one of the great moments in the history of Jazz Caff/Black Swan jam sessions.

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