Album Review: Rebecca DuMaine and The Dave Miller Trio – Someday, Someday

Rebecca DuMaine (vocals); Dave Miller (piano); Bill Belasco (drums); Chuck Bennett (bass)

I quote from the publicity notes, which is as good a description as any: 'performing uplifting music during the pandemic that is both realistic and swinging. Their set of standards and two of the singer's originals are filled with warm vocals, boppish piano solos, fresh ideas, and variety'.

To enlarge on the above, Ms DuMaine sings some quite sad love songs in a jaunty, pacey, style, as in I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan, which suggests that the song is about survival, good to hear about during a pandemic. I knew I was enjoying the album when I realised that I was tapping my feet, especially to numbers such as As Long As I Live (Harold Arlen), an amusing love song about looking after your health as well as your love life.

Sue Ferris Quartet livestream from The Black Swan - April 13

(Collage by Lance)

Sue Ferris (flute/alto/tenor/baritone saxes); Stu Collingwood (keys); Neil Harland (bass); Rob Walker (drums); Zoë Gilby (host).

Musically this was faultless. Sue blew tenor, flute, baritone and alto  on a choice selection of tunes most of which I recognised. Gutsy tenor and baritone, dreamy alto and spiky flute. Ably supported by Collingwood, Harland and Walker it was a swinging mainstream to modern set that saw all four players doing justice to the music.

On tenor, Sue played Just Squeeze Me; Well You Needn't and, I think, a Roy Hargrove number to finish. 

Album review: The Rebecca Kilgore Trio - Vol. 1

Rebecca Kilgore (vocal); Randy Porter (piano); Tom Wakeling (bass); Dick Titterington (cornet 2 tracks).

What a great start to the week! Yesterday the pubs opened and today an album by Rebecca Kilgore landed in the passage and, if that wasn't enough, the first track on the album was Dave Frishberg's Dear Bix - a song tailor-made for Kilgore's gentle, laid back voice and a favourite of mine ever since I heard Roly Veitch sing it at the old Side Café.

Livestream Tuesday Jazz: Sue Ferris Quartet

(Press release)

A top North East Quartet direct from the Black Swan venue at Newcastle Arts Centre. Hosted by Zoë. Gilby.

Sue Ferris Quartet, featuring Sue on saxes and flute, Stu Collingwood on piano, Neil Harland on double bass and Rob Walker on drums, all well-seasoned jazz musicians from the North East.

Technical support for this secure streaming channel is provided by Tyne Audio.

• Tues. 13th April
• 8:00 pm
• Min. £6 (inc booking fee) with the option to donate more
• Tickets here

Album review: Michael Wolff - Live at Vitellos

Michael Walsh (piano); Mark Isham (trumpet/flugel); John B. Williams (bass); Mike Clarke (drums).

The opening Ballad Noir lives up to its name, the most evocative trumpet (flugel?) playing that I've heard since Art Farmer's solo on Gerry Mulligan's Night Lights. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. It was like watching Psycho the first time around. Eerie, but beautiful. 

Lagniappe (don't ask me!) is less emotive, more adventurous with Isham ticking all the boxes in his solo and deservedly drawing the applause from the audience at the iconic L.A jazz club Vitellos.

Ten underrated jazzmen by Mike Farmer - Part three

8. Tadd Dameron (1917-1965). Played piano during the early days of be-bop and recorded with Miles, Parker, Fats Navarro, Coltrane and other modern jazz innovators but he was also a very talented composer and arranger. Sarah Vaughan had a big hit with his tune If You Could See Me Now. During the late fifties he was off the scene due to health problems but in 1961 he recorded for Riverside an excellent album The Magic Touch which featured a line-up of top rate jazzmen such as Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Bill Evans and many more.

Bratislava Hot Serenaders live streaming from somewhere in Slovakia - April 11

(Screenshot by Russell)

If you've heard the New Century Ragtime Orchestra you'll have some idea of what the Bratislava Hot Serenaders are about. Penguin suits, slicked back hair styles, back in the day they could have been pressed into entertaining the Gestapo, there again, they could have been the Gestapo! A more generous interpretation, they could have been entertaining F. Scott Fitzgerald and his high society chums at a swanky do. Better still, imagine them as underground resistance heroes. The Bratislavas could be thought of as musical archeologists or archivists, preserving and/or reviving the repertoire. And nothing wrong with that, after all, several generations of musicians continue to mine the bop cannon, and more recently, seventies' jazz-rock has seen something of a resurgence of interest.       

Album review: Ian Charleton Big Band - A Fresh Perspective

Some nice Basie-like sounds on the opening two tracks, both originals by the leader as is the title track, a romp in 6/4 time that has wailing soprano by Garcia, lyrical flugel by Kerry Moffit and all driven along by Habib's drumming.

Vocalist Emily Charleton just happens to be married to the leader but I'm sure she'd have got the gig anyway judging by her earthy rendition of Rogers and Hart's Everything I've Got - that Larry Hart could sure pen a lyric!

Ten underrated jazz musicians by Mike Farmer - Part Two.

5. Marion Brown (1931-2010 ). A very interesting alto sax player and composer who in the sixties played alongside members of the avant-guarde and loft scene. He had a piercing sound on alto which was well captured on the album Porto Rico which had Han Bennick on board. I  no longer have this LP which I think was on the Fontana label but I still have his tribute LP to his friend Archie Shepp Three for Shepp on Impulse which is a good example of his composing skills. I saw him at a jam session in a small room during the North Sea Jazz Festival  and I took a photo which I have hanging on my kitchen wall!

Ten underrated jazz musicians by Mike Farmer - Part One.

1. Sonny Red (1932-1981). Somewhat overshadowed by his fellow alto players Sonny Stitt and Sonny Criss he made some fine records under his own name and as a sideman. He spent his early days in Detroit playing with Barry Harris, Donald Byrd and other musicians who were influenced by the great Charlie Parker. Check out his work on Jazzland LP A Story Tale in which he is  joined by Clifford Jordan on tenor. Red’s was born Sylvester Kyner Jnr and died too young age 48.

Sunday Night Jazz @ The Globe: Mark Williams Makeshift Trio - April 11

(Screenshot by Debra Milne)

Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Grainger (bass); Russ Morgan (drums)

Anyone who felt short-changed that Alice Grace couldn't make it were soon saying "Alice who?" when Mark opened up with Monk's Let's Cool it, a tune that, to my ears, sounded remarkably like the composer's Nica's Dream. Alice, from her sickbed, commented on how good the band sounded.

Ya Like Jazz? Ella and Friends - April 11

(Screenshot by Russell)

Ella Hohnen-Ford (vocals); Miles Mindlin (guitar); Noah Stoneman (piano); Will Sach (double bass)

When You Wish Upon a Star opened Ella's weekly Sunday evening live stream. Familiar faces joined the recent Royal Academy of Music graduate, pianist Noah Stoneman, heard on many a Kansas Smitty's session, likewise bassist Will Sach, together with a new name, Miles Mindlin playing guitar, yet another  RAM student who has already gigged at Ronnie's and the Soho Pizza Express and he occupies the guitar chair in NYJO. 

The One Year Anniversary Sunday Service with Adrian Cox - April 11

(Screenshot by Russell)

Adrian Cox (clarinet, vocals)

An inauspicious start. A matter of seconds in, Facebook went on the blink. Seventy five online punters waited patiently as Preacher Cox attended to a technical glitch. At eight minutes past one our host reappeared. Fingers crossed there would be no further hiccups. A new tune, new in that Cox hadn't played it during a year's worth of lockdown live streams, I Double Dare You came across crystal clear, resonant clarinet and vocals direct from our host's apartment out in Bulgaria. Mid-tune, some nineteen minutes into the stream we got the now familiar Live video interrupted. It was going to be one of those days! 

The Ray Gallon Trio live streaming from Small's, NYC - April 10

(Screenshot by Russell)

Ray Gallon (piano); David Wong (double bass); Kenny Washington (drums)

Ray Gallon has been working on the New York jazz scene for more than thirty years, yet it is only now that he has recorded an album of his own. This evening at Spike Wilner's place, our born and bred New Yorker was joined by two of his favourite musicians (two of my favourite people, said our pianist), fellow New Yorkers, David Wong playing bass and revered drummer Kenny Washington. 

Kansas Smitty's Main Man plays Sidney Bechet - April 10

(Screenshot by Ken Drew)

The Main Man is back in harness. An unscheduled, extended visit to his home town in America kept Giacomo Smith out of Kansas Smitty's spotlight for longer than he anticipated. Tonight's session focused on the music of Sidney Bechet with particular reference to the legendary musician's Paris sojourn. An inventive, additional aspect to this evening's live stream was an imagining of Bechet meeting Django Reinhardt. The two icons were living in the French capital at the same time but never recorded together and perhaps never met one another.  

Aycliffe Radio Jazz Time

Playlist  11/04/21 (6:30pm - 8:00pm)

Mostly Requests from listeners this week:

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band; Stan Kenton; Lindsay Hannon Plus; Carmen Sings Monk; Thelonius Monk; Mingus Big Band93; Buddy Rich Big Band; Stacey Kent.

New Releases: Perfect Circle; Jack Brandfield.

Leon Redbone; Count Basie Orchestra featuring: Sonny Cohn; Last Week's missed ending - Ella Fitzgerald; John Coltrane.

Mike

Paul Moran: 'Smokin' B3' livestream from 606 w. Special guest Jo Harrop - April 10

(Collage by Lance)

Paul Moran (B3); Jim Mullen (guitar); Mez Clough (drums) + Jo Harrop (vocals).

Difficult to be objective when you've been a fan of three of the four players for a varying number of years - next time round it will be four out of four as this was the first time I'd heard Clough and he slotted in easily.

The B3 can be a lethal beast in the wrong hands (and feet) and I've heard some great pianists fall flat on their bass (pedals) unable to adapt to the vastly different technique required.

Joe Webb live streaming with Ella Hohnen-Ford - April 10

(Screenshot by Russell)

Joe Webb (piano); Ella Hohnen-Ford (vocals)

Ella sang You're Sensational. She was and is, sensational, that is. That could be the review, end of. You're thinking: I know Ella Fitzgerald was sensational. Ah, but this Ella is Ms Ella Hohnen-Ford. One word...sensational! A 2020 Royal Academy of Music graduate, Hohnen-Ford sings like a dream. In her early twenties, just imagine how good Ella will be in, say, five, ten years time. Oh, yes, this afternoon's set was of course, Joe Webb's! Sorry Joe, Ella's canny good, isn't she?! 

Change of programme at The Globe tomorrow night.

Unfortunately, Alice Grace is unwell and will not be live-streaming from The Globe tomorrow night. Instead the Mark Williams Trio will step into the breech.

We wish Alice well and look forward to hearing her again soon.

Lance 

Details.

Sonny Simmons (1933 - April 6, 2021)

(Photo by Lance)

It's Sunday May 10, 2010 and in the upstairs room of the Bridge Hotel in Newcastle the Jazz North East team are smiling - the room is so full they're having to find extra seats, " Could you move along please? Well perhaps if you sat on the lady's knee..."

The late comers had to be content to stand at the top of the stairs, some didn't even make it that far!

The reason for all this activity? Multi-reedsman Sonny Simmons was about to give a concert and the word was out from those who had caught him at the same venue a couple of years earlier that it would be unmissable - and it was.

Alas, no more. Huey 'Sonny' Simmons passed away on Tuesday (April 6) aged 87.

May he Rest In Peace.

Lance

Pete Malinverni Trio live streaming from Small's, NYC - April 9

(Screenshot by Russell)

Pete Malinverni (piano); Ugonna Okegwo (bass); Jeff Hamilton (drums) 

Friday night at 183 West 10th Street with another fine pianist, Pete Malinverni, entertaining Small's online gathering. The hour would include several Leonard Bernstein numbers, original compositions and a tip of the hat to two of the towering figures in jazz.