NYC jazz notes (13)

A visual arts/doing-the-sights day, later, the evening would be a two-gigs-on-the-night affair. Up on Fifth Avenue, just across the road from Central Park, stands the Guggenheim Museum. The thick end of $30 admission, the place was heaving with tourist culture vultures. Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic modernist building at 1071 Fifth Avenue is in stark relief to its neighbours either side. 

Album review: Helena Debono & Charlie Bates - A Thousand Nights

When I say that there is room for improvement it has nothing to do with the music. Singer, band, soloists, arrangements are all excellent. No, my gripe is with the inside cover. The font size is so small you need 20-20 vision and perhaps some magnifying equipment from Jodrell Bank to read it.

However, now that I've got that off my chest I'll get down to the positives of which there is an abundance.

Both Helena and Charlie are alumni of NYJO and A Thousand Nights is a compelling collaboration between themselves, a big band packed with A-listers and a large orchestra, in a mix of standards and originals. 

Today's shellac selection: Bob Crosby's Bobcats - It Was a Lover and his Lass/Oh Mistress Mine

Shakespeare and All That Jazz, to quote from the title of an iconic Cleo Laine album, may doth seem strange bedfellows but, in truth their union hast oft bore fruit.

Arthur Young's settings to the words of four of the Bard's songs are a case in point. Cleo recorded all four with the Dankworth Seven back in the early fifties and again in the sixties on the aforementioned album. Then of course there was Duke's Such Sweet Thunder and the jazz related film All Night Long with Tubbs, Brubeck and Mingus among others putting Othello into a jazz scenario.

R.I.P. Zoot Money (July 17, 1942 - Sept. 8, 2024)

The sad news that Zoot Money is no longer with has hit many fans in many genres. He adopted the name Zoot after hearing Zoot Sims when he was still at school. He was well known in Newcastle.

Apart from the many appearances by Zoot Money and the Big Roll Band at the Club a'GoGo on Percy St they also played at Redcar Jazz Club, Kirklevington Country Club, the Mayfair and many other northeast venues. I think his last visit to Newcastle was probably in 2017 when he played Newcastle Labour Club. It was a year later when I saw/heard him at Ronnie's guesting with Georgie Fame and the Guy Barker Big Band.

Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ the Lit & Phil - Sept. 13

© Patti

Jeff Barnhart, Neville Dickie (pianos)

This was something else! Close your eyes and you were at a Harlem rent party with Fats and Willie 'The Lion' the main contenders. If you've never witnessed two stride pianos slugging it out on two pianos then you ain't been nowhere - and one of them, this lunchtime was 87 year-old and British!

Although there may have been a competitive edge, and it's inevitable when two players are playing the same instrument, the overall effect was of two pianists sharing their mutual admiration for each other.

At times it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. Everything was seamless and it was equally hard to tell who was enjoying it the most - the performers or the audience. I think that one was a score draw.

More shellac! Earl Bostic's Flamingo

Two days in and I'm already at the letter B. This is a tricky one. Basie, Barnet, Bix, Bunny? They're all well-represented in my collection however, I've bypassed them in favour of Earl Bostic's Flamingo/Sleep.

Flamingo had a big effect on teenagers in the early fifties. His growling tone on alto personified instrumental rhythm and blues and, once more kids could dance to jazz although once rock and roll arrived in the form of Bill Haley and Elvis those fickle fans flew the coup.

No one understood how he got that raspy growl. One local know-all said it was because he played the instrument underwater. Fortunately I had yet to take up the saxophone otherwise I may have drowned or at least caught a cold.

Kamasi Washington tour rescheduled

The American super soul star saxophonist Kamasi Washington's 2024 tour has been rescheduled to 2025 owing to a serious back injury.

Washington was due to appear at the Glasshouse on October 20. That concert will now take place on April 5, 2025.

If you already have tickets they will be honoured. If you can't make the new date contact the Glasshouse HERE.

In the photo Kamasi (left) can be seen at Cheltenham in 2018 with our reviewer Steve T. Lance 

A Great Afternoon in Brunswick - Sept. 12

Brunswick Methodist Church is home, temporarily or otherwise, to Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society. Meeting fortnightly Thursdays (all welcome), jazz enthusiasts turn up to listen to and talk about (favourite?) recordings. This afternoon's gathering focused upon Art Kane's 1958 Harlem group portrait photograph of 57 musicians and the jazz associated with it/them. 

Your correspondent, thinking it was a 2:30pm start, turned up fashionably late, half an hour late. The GJAS attendees looked round, their concentration disturbed. Apology offered, taking a seat, the thought occurred that BSH's Editor-in-Chief should look for someone else to compile the what's on listings...

Album review: Leslie Pintchik - Prayer For What Remains (Pintch Hard Records)

Leslie Pintchik (piano, composer, arranger);  Scott Hardy (bass); Michael Sarin (drums); Satoshi Takeishi (perc.) + Steve Wilson (soprano sax on two tks)

Pintchik's eighth album and I think the title gives a clue as to the mood although I could be wrong. We shall see ...

The title track* bears me out with some thoughtful piano from the leader and an expressive soprano wail from Wilson on the first of his two appearances.

However, Later Than We Thought  is more up. The bouncy Latin rhythm belying the inspiration behind the title (this might be our last cup of coffee!).

NYC jazz notes (12)

On another hot, blue sky day, a trip up to E 126 St was eagerly anticipated. A Great Day in Harlem: Art Kane's photograph (1958), Jean Bach's documentary film about the occasion (1994), the Strictly Smokin' Big Band's Harlem '58 album (2021), the subject matter of the iconic Esquire magazine photo continues to fascinate six decades on. 

Brownstone buildings were at the forefront of a sepia-tinted mind's eye, would the romance of it all live up to expectations? The subway Uptown was hot, hot, hot. Mid-morning, emerging onto the streets of Harlem, folk were going about their business. Brownstones? Yes, but not as many as one might imagine. Decades of development/redevelopment have had an effect, that much was clear to see.