Paul Bream
This WEEK'S GIGS
Some interesting gigs line up next week, with Meschiya Lake coming across as the missing link between Bessie Smith and Janis Joplin, while George Huxley digs into the Sidney Bechet legacy. But there’s not a lot into which lovers of more contemporary jazz can sink their teeth until the end of the week, when Wilbur’s Fate return to the Bridge.
So for modernists needing a quick fix, I start this ‘Alert’ with a reminder of the outstanding Simon Spillett gig tonight – stylistically it might have its roots 50 years ago, but it packs a punch that’s right here, right now!
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Jazz North East presents
SIMON SPILLETT with the PAUL EDIS TRIO
Simon Spillett (saxophones); Paul Edis (keyboards); Mick Shoulder (bass); Adam Sinclair (drums)
Thursday 2nd February | 8.00pm
Corner House Hotel
Tickets £10.00 | £8.00 concessions | £4.00 students
Reviewing Simon Spillett’s debut album, the Penguin Guide says “he doesn’t shake you by the hand so much as grab you by the throat”. It’s what you’d expect from a musician whose primary inspiration is the hard blowing British jazz of the 1960s, and particularly the most energetic of them all, the late Tubby Hayes. I’m usually a bit wary about younger musicians working in the styles of previous eras, but I have no hesitation about recommending this gig – while Spillett has all of Tubbs’s headlong power, he brings his own voice to the proceedings, and with our own excellent Paul Edis Trio lighting the fuse, we can expect some spectacular fireworks.
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And now on to next week . . .
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CUSTOMS HOUSE COMMUNITY BIG BAND
Open Rehearsal Night
Tuesday 7th February | 8.00pm
New Crown Hotel | Mowbray Road | South Shields NE33 3NG
Free admission
The Customs House band brought the recent Mike Gilby tribute gig to a roaring conclusion, and it’s clear that a lot of work goes into their exciting and well drilled sound. These monthly ‘open rehearsals’ are well worth attending for anybody interested in how the building blocks are put into place.
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MESCHIYA LAKE & THE LITTLE BIG HORNS
Meschiya Lake (vocals); Ben Polcer (trumpet); Charlie Halloran (trombone); Jason Jurzak (sousaphone); Russell Welch (guitar); Mike Voelker (drums); Chance Bushman & Amy Johnson (dance)
Wednesday 8th February | 7.30pm
Saltburn Community Hall | Albion Terrace | Saltburn TS12 1NN
Tickets £10.00 from 01287 624622
Based in New Orleans, Meschiya Lake is a one-time alternative circus performer (glass eating and fire dancing amongst her skills) who for the past five years has been belting out Bessie Smith era songs with a succession of bands, culminating in her own ‘Little Big Horns’ outfit which she formed in the Spring of 2009. They now come to Saltburn as part of their first ever UK tour.
There’s nothing particularly original in the performances, but the energy and enthusiasm is tremendously infectious, and it’s unlikely that the band’s own ‘in-house’ dancers will be the only ones on the floor by the end of the evening.
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PRESTON REED
Wednesday 8th February | 8.00pm
Customs House | Mill Dam | South Shields NE33 1ES
Tickets £12.00 | £1.00 concessions from 0191 454 1234
New Yorker Preston Reed has been described as re-inventing the way the acoustic guitar is played: a bit of an exaggeration to my mind, but there’s no doubt that his highly rhythmic and percussive style (it involves a lot of slapping the fretboard) is very distinctive. Whether it’s jazz is a different matter – some of the music is fiendishly complex, but the degree of improvisation seems minimal. Probably one primarily for guitar enthusiasts.
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Jumpin’ Hot Club presents
MESCHIYA LAKE & THE LITTLE BIG HORNS
Meschiya Lake (vocals); Ben Polcer (trumpet); Charlie Halloran (trombone); Jason Jurzak (sousaphone); Russell Welch (guitar); Mike Voelker (drums); Chance Bushman & Amy Johnson (dance)
Thursday 9th February | 8.00pm
Cluny 2 | 36 Lime Street | Newcastle NE1 2PQ
Tickets £12.00 from 0191 230 4474
The tattooed lady of New Orleans jazz follows her Saltburn performance with a gig in the Cluny’s second space.
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KATE PETERS SEPTET
Kate Peters (vocals); Matt Anderson (tenor sax); Ian Chalk (trumpet); Zezo Olimpio (keyboards); Aubin Vanns (guitar); John Marley (bass); Sam Gardner (drums)
Thursday 9th February | 8.00pm
Hoochie Coochie | 54 Pilgrim Street | Newcastle NE1 6SF
Free admission
Note: Wheelchair access to the venue is only possible with assistance.
I’m less than enthralled by Kate Peters, who is described as “a respected jazz and sessions vocalist”, but whose voice seems to me to be less than pitch perfect, without any compensatory originality of interpretation. But the band behind her consists of some A-listers from the Leeds jazz scene (saxist Matt Anderson recently played a fine ‘Splinter’ gig with his own quartet), and if they get let off the leash from time to time, this could be well worth catching.
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GEORGE HUXLEY’S BLUES SERENADERS
‘A Tribute to Sidney Bechet’
Friday 10th February | 8.00pm
Customs House | Mill Dam | South Shields NE33 1ES
Tickets £12.00 | £11.00 concessions from 0191 454 1234
Like many clarinet and sax players in the classic jazz field, George Huxley regards Sidney Bechet as his idol, and this gig – with his Blues Serenaders – revisits the great man’s career from his trail-blazing 1920s days in New Orleans to the rather bland balladry that marked his final years in the South of France.
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DEBRA MILNE ENSEMBLE
Debra Milne (vocals); Steve Glendinning (guitar); Mike Clark (bass); Rob Bates (drums); Judith Thompson (violin)
Saturday 11th February | 9.15pm
Jazz Café | Pink Lane | Newcastle NE1 5DW
Information from 0191 232 6505
I chanced recently across a short documentary about the Jazz Café, with very little music but quite a lot of talking heads and voices over. One of the latter explained that “All the strange people you see in Newcastle during the day seem to gather in the Jazz Café at night” – a slightly ambivalent endorsement. The strangest thing about vocalist Debra Milne’s Ensemble is that the line-up never seems to be the same for any two consecutive gigs, although fiddler Judith Thompson and Debra herself are ever present, which is just as well as it’s their contributions which really give the group its distinctive sound.
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Trinity Jazz presents
GEORGE HUXLEY’S FEETWARMERS
‘A Tribute to Sidney Bechet’
Saturday 11th February | 8.00pm
Trinity Centre | Gosforth High Street NE3 4AG
Tickets £10.00 from 0191 285 6130
A bit of a mystery, this. As far as I can make out, this is effectively the same Bechet tribute as Huxley played last night in South Shields, but the accompanying band has metamorphosed from the Blues Serenaders into the Feetwarmers. Maybe the line-up will have changed a little – I gather that both groups are drawn from our own regional pool of trad players, so there could be questions of availability on different nights, or erhaps a desire to minimise the tax bill – but it’s unlikely to make much difference to the nature of the music.
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Splinter presents
WILBUR’S FATE
Matthew Forster (tenor sax & bass clarinet); Jordi Cooke (guitar); John Pope (bass); David Francis (drums)
Sunday 12th February | 8.00pm
Bridge Hotel | Castle Garth | Newcastle NE1 1RQ
Admission £5.00
Note: This gig is in an upstairs room inaccessible for wheelchair users
Although Wilbur’s Fate have been gigging around since last August, I didn’t catch up with them until their first Splinter gig in November, and was extremely impressed by what I heard. They’re not the finished article, nor would they claim to be – indeed, should that even be an aspiration in a music which is about development and evolution? But they are on their way to establishing a distinctive approach, distinguishing themselves from bands which may be more sure-footed in what they’re doing, but only because they’re walking on well trodden ground.
With Wilbur’s Fate there is a willingness to explore new territory, expressed both through some intriguing compositions from Matt Forster and Jordi Cooke, and in stretches of individual and collective improvisation that move out of the comfort zone. I’m told that they’ll have some new material to unveil at this gig, and I’m really looking forward to hearing it.
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THIRD STREAM
I’m ancient enough to remember the early days of Third Stream Music, defined by composer Gunther Schuller as “a new genre of music located halfway between jazz and classical music”. I also remember being very unimpressed by most of the 1960s examples of the music, which rarely retained the power of either genre.
But set aside the rather pompous and formulaic pronouncements of Schuller & Co, and there’s no doubt that many jazz musicians, from Duke Ellington through to Anthony Braxton, have successfully integrated classical influences into their work, so the news that Tyneside saxophonist and composer Claude Werner is setting up a ‘Third Stream Ensemble Workshop’ is certainly interesting. The ensemble, says Claude, will be “playing specially commissioned works fusing classical and jazz influences”, and will provide “an exciting new musical experience which offers the chance to improve your ensemble skills and to play regularly with other musicians”.
The group will meet once a week for a couple of hours, with “only a basic reading ability required”, so if you’re interested in taking part, you can find out more by emailing info@compositionsandjazzltd.co.uk.
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BIG & BRASSY
I’m told by Paul Miskin, leader of multicultural, multi-genre band Soznak, that he is looking for “a sousaphone/tuba player with a real sense of adventure” (as if taking up the sousaphone weren’t adventurous enough in its own right).
The band, defined by Paul as “still dipping into contradictory streams of the jazz universe,” can be heard most Saturday mornings doing its stuff on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street, but also works much more widely – they had tours of Romania and Ireland last Summer, and will almost certainly be on their travels again this year. So life with Soznak is clearly an opportunity to broaden one’s horizons in several senses – if you’re interested in finding out more, you can contact Paul at <nwsi@nwsi.demon.co.uk>.
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'Jazz Alert' is an independent jazz information service, based on information received from bands, venues, and an international network of correspondents. Compiler Paul Bream is grateful for financial assistance from JazzAction, but accepts full responsibility for all assessments, recommendations, and other editorial verbiage.
TWEET
Lots of terms have been used to describe my writing style, but "concise" has never been one of them. So my adoption of Twitter as a means of communication has come as a profound culture shock . . . it normally takes me more than 140 characters just to order a pint.
Still, as a means of getting out late breaking information about the local jazz scene, it seems to have a great deal of potential, so, if you'd like to become one of my 'followers' (I promise never to tweet about what I'm having for dinner), my Twitter name is @jazzalertman.
Well, it's taken me around 500 characters to explain this. I clearly need some more practice . . .
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'JazzAlert' is grateful for financial assistance from JazzAction, the regional jazz development agency, but all the twittering is the responsibility of the compiler,
Paul Bream
The 'Jazz Alert' is derived from my database of forthcoming gigs, which is itself put together from information received from musicians and promoters. It really doesn't matter how far ahead people let me know about their planned events (I already have details of gigs as far away as December) - in fact it's helpful to have the information well in advance so that I have time to do a bit of background research. So if you're a musician who's just been booked for a gig in August, or a promoter who's got a programme of future gigs set up, send me an email with the details. Do it now, before you forget!
Paul Bream