Sidetracks & Detours present PASS IT ON 65 Weekly Supplement Sunday 1 9 2024
Sidetracks & Detours
present
PASS IT ON 65
Weekly Supplement Sunday 1 9 2024
CONTENTS
Hear The Call; COME FORM THE ART by Akela
1 A Sound Selection WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS MY NAME
by Some Lonesome Picker
2 all across the arts ´TINA TURNER´ AT MIDDLETON.
preview by Steve Cooke
3 Following Festivals LOS REMEDIOS FESTIVITIES
culture, folklore & tradition previewed by Alfred Michael
4 Literature
SIMON & SCHUSTER celebrate 100 years by Joseph Aloysius
5 Live Jazz Sunday Tonight 1 Sept ALAN BARNES (sax & clarinet)
COMING UP AT THE PROGRESS
STEVE WATERMAN Latin Jazz Quartet
PERFECT STRANGER
SOULTIME
preview by Jazz In Reading
6 Live Jazz MUSIC THAT´S GOING PLACES
previewed by Rob Adams´ newsletter
7 Jazz On Air HOT BISCUITS served by Steve Bewick
8 A Reader´s Perspective. All Points Forward.
BREAD – A SWEET SURRENDER by Peter Pearson
9 Island Insights THANK YOU LANZAROTE …. by Norman Warwick
now can I please have my dominoes back?
Hear The Call
COME FOLLOW YOUR ART
by Akela
It was another busy week for our hard working team of contributors this week. In fact many of our writers spent a day in The Boiler House in Moss Side, but came back to the office raving about the good work that goes on there.
So the next day we sent them down to Heaton Park to see the runners and rowers of Heaton Park Boats in a much more convivial setting.
Our posse landed in Demark with Bebe Sorren who has some unique ways of expanding his fan base. In fact the classical pianist has even said that if anyone is compiling a playlist he would love to have a piece of his work included. Watch this space !
Our writers also submitted a report on Suranne Jones commitment to the small theatres in the UK and so we also offered you a review of our own of a book that discusses the importance of such theatre to the UK culture.
So, thanks for joining us today, after our Saturday off work to watch the football on telly.
Welcome to another bulging copy of PASS IT ON, our 65th Sunday Supplement.
The regular reporters are all here, like Steve Cooke from all across the arts, and Steve Bewick, serving Hot Biscuits to accompany his on-air playlist for this week. Alfred Michael and Joseph Aloysius have hidden in plain sight in the office doing some ghost-writing for us about festivals and literature.
Peter Pearson has earned his crust again this week, with an excellently informative piece on Bread, and Norman Warwick has made a public vote of thanks to Lanzarote for the health care he and his wife have received over the past few weeks. They are both fully recovered.
There are Jazz Listings and previews from our buddies at Jazz In Reading and a comprehensive collation by Rob Adams of Music that´s Going Places in that genre.
Some Lonesome Picker also previewed what will be his second contribution of Sound Collections, Where Everybody Knows My Name will be published in Sidetracks & Detours on Monday 16th September.
1 A Sound Selection
WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS MY NAME
by Some Lonesome Picker
Many readers of sidetracks and detours will remember the wonderful sit-com set in Cheers, a Boston Bar, in which a small cast created the impression of a bustling pub. It was a place where, according to the series theme song, everybody knows your name. One of the stalwart characters was Norm, a collar and tie accountant who sat at the end of the bar, often looking down into his pint. seemingly putting off the time to go home to his wife.
Norm, not to be confused with our beloved editor, was a big. bulky guy who would never be the life and soul of the party. Like our own editor, though he liked being with people but didn´t really like people at all, a confused outlook that saw him in all sorts of mix-ups.
In fact I know that Norman Warwick, in the period the show was being shown. could be found at The Hare And Hounds pub with his wife Dee, with Colin Lever and his wife Elaine sitting on the fringe of a strong community of pub goers in an era before the karaoke and open mic nights that Colin immortalised two or three years ago in a novel set in that era.
It was as I stared down into a pint the other night that I thought I caught a glimpse of our Sidetracks & Detours editor with Dee, sitting fairly silently sipping their drinks and watching the world come and go into the Lani´s bar on Lanzarote. The place is always packed out because of its magnificent sunsets, seen out at sea on the horizon, from virtually every seat in the place.
There´s one particularly colourful character who calls himself Rapid Roy The Stock Car Boy, and there´s an old guy called Cody who sings, in a faded cowboy hat.
Look at that lady: and there´s a lady called Josie who has loved nearly every male tourist she has ever met on the island, and next to her is also Mary Margaret, who is always looking for a light beyond these woods. That girl by the window is Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and Dear Prudence drops in from timt to time, too. You can see Mrs. Brown, in the corner, and her lovely daughter,.
The young guy over there is Canadian, and he has a thing going on with Mrs. Jones. He needs to be careful, I´m telling you, because you don´t mess about with her husband, Jim
And that´s Mrs Robinson, by the window, having a chat with Rene and Georgette Magritt. You can also see Dusty in the corner, who thinks we don´t know about her and the son of the preacher man.
Steve Miller, leaning on the bar over there, is the joker in the pack, I would say, and the girls all say he´s the gangster of love. He´s talking to that long, cool woman in the black dress. She´s called Jesamine and I just don´t know what he´s supposed to do with a girl like Jesamine.
Young Nina by the bar is head over heels with that brown eyed handsome man by the stairs, but he´s head over heels with Pamela Pamela, so good they named her twice !
We have actually got just about a hundred in here tonight, so its pretty packed. Everybody knows your name it seems.
So if I can whittle them down to twenty on my playlist I´ll offer the landlord a copy of the compilation cd and he can play it through our speakers.
Oh, and by the way, that lady walking out to the car park is Lucy Jordan. She´s seventy now, but she makes up for an unexciting life by driving through the streets of Playa Blanca in her sports car, with the warm wind in her hair.
Look out FOR Sound Collection 2
WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS MY NAME
all tracks selected by some lonesome picker
To be published in Sidetracks & Detours
Monday 16th September 2024
2 all across the arts
´TINA TURNER´ AT MIDDLETON.
preview by Steve Cooke
Shake a tail feather at Middleton Arena with the UK’s original, award-winning Tina Turner tribute… aka Justine Riddoch (right) and her talented cast.
When Tina burst onto the scene, she won the hearts of music fans from the outset, creating a fearsome reputation for her live performances – and those never-ending legs!
Early hits River Deep – Mountain High, Proud Mary and Nutbush City Limits were just a taste of what was to come.
We Don’t Need Another Hero, Simply the Best, What’s Love Got to Do With It, I Don’t Wanna Lose You and When the Heartache is Over propelled her to stadium concert stardom.
Supported by her super-talented band and dazzling dancing girls in sequins, feathers and diamonds, Justine is known as the ultimate Tina (a National Tribute Awards winner since 2013).
‘She’s got the looks, she’s got the moves, she’s got the legs, but most of all, she’s got the voice.´
Join an army of loyal fans at the Middleton Arena for a truly authentic, fun-packed musical spectacular!
Twelve years have passed since Totally Tina first sprang to life in the vibrant city of Liverpool, but a Lifetime Achievement Award and many other prestigious accolades along the way have earned Justine’s ‘Totally Tina’ a deserved top spot in the musical tribute world.
Justine admits she has been observing her beloved muse from the start; constantly honing her homage to the legend herself with passion and an unrivalled attention to detail, to deliver the most authentic recreation of the rock and roll Queen’s live performances.
The cast and crew of Totally Tina are pulling out all the stops this year with the promise of a brand new, custom-made performance featuring a whole host of fresh ideas, coupled with the band’s now famous humour.
The show is designed to make the audience feel that the legendary performer is right back in front of them, strutting her stuff on the most famous legs in show business!
This year’s production is a heady mix of nostalgia and surprise with all the favourite Tina Turner hits, her best duets, much-loved covers and the odd twist in the tale.
Justine, a past winner of cult talent show, Stars In Their Eyes performing as Anastacia, is known in the business for her enthusiasm and drive and has been singing professionally for 30 years.
She is justifiably proud of her cast and crew who’ve played a huge part in helping her to create the longest running Tina Turner tribute.
Friday 20 September 2024
Doors open 7pm/show start time – 7.30pm
Totally TINA Arena Theatre, Middleton Arena, LCpl Joel Halliwell VC Way, Middleton. M24 1AG
3 FOLLOWING FESTIVALS
Yaiza´s Los Remedios festivities
culture, folklore & tradition
previewed by Alfred Michael
I love taking my occasional trips back down to earth, when I can zoom around the world looking to see where arts and culture festivals are being held. I then magically drop any poster and information I have collected on to the desk of my daughter Dee, or Elizabeth as her mum and I christened her, and her husband; Norman Warwick so that as editors of PASS IT ON they can distribute the information around the world to their arts loving readers. On my last trip down there, I actually saw workers on Lanzarote working on the Los Remedios festival, a significant and joyful religious event that incorporates a great deal of folk-art and music during its week long timetable.
I realised I was pretty close to the sidetracks & detours Dee and Norman have followed since they left England to live on in what seems a pretty busy retirement on Lanzarote, and I thought for a minute it might be fun to drop in and see them. Sometimes, though, I forget my status and I only remembered just in time that I couldn´t let them see me. They have probably never seen a ghost before….although they must wonder who drops the piles of information on their desk.
The Los Remedios Festivities 2024 will be opened by a speech by teacher María Dolores Rodríguez on August 30, while Olga Cerpa and Mestisay perform on September 7th and on the 8th, Yaiza’s Big Day, the Valencian group Bombai appears.
The town of Yaiza is looking forward to two weeks of culture, folklore and celebrations animated by its program of patronal celebrations in honour of the Virgin of Los Remedios, which will start on August 30 and will last until September 9.
This celebration mixes tradition and open revelry for the enjoyment of residents and visitors who have it served in Yaiza. There is invariably a wonderful atmosphere that captures the joy and from Friday, August 30, the day set for the reading of the proclamation, a novel addition to this atmosphere will be lent as the speech will be delivered outdoors in front of the church of Remedios.
María Dolores Rodríguez González, has roots in Yaiza and is also a former deputy minister of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands.
The traditional pilgrimage on Saturday 31 August , carrying the statue of the Dolores around the town at 6:00 pm from the car park of the football field, across into the church.
The Rubicón Folk Festival, scheduled immediately after the opening speech, is created and enriched each year by the Rubicón Folk Group of Yaiza and its invited groups and soloists, are two essential events of the festivities as distinguished expressions of popular culture.
Speaking of popular Canarian culture, the Fiestas de Los Remedios bring to the stage of Yaiza one of the most representative female voices of traditional music, Olga Cerpa, accompanied by her group Mestisay .
This concert on September 7th will be an excellent prelude to the Big Day of Yaiza, on September 8th, a Sunday of solemn religious service and procession, to then close the night with the live performance of the Valencian group Bombai, whose hits include the song Solo si es contigo , as well as other pop rock and reggae melodies.
Yaiza also reserves space for poetry with two great writers and residents of the town: Jaime Quesada and Manuel Concepción, protagonists of the Mano a mano poético on September 7th, but in addition the festivities invite on September 4th to the family storytelling session Potaje de cuentos , with the narrator Isabel Cabrera.
These are just some of the brushstrokes of the entire Remedios program that the people of Lanzarote can consult on the web .
On behalf of the Yaiza Town Council and the Festival Committee, the mayor, Óscar Noda, and the councillor responsible for Culture and Festivities, Daniel Medina, encourage participation. Children’s games, sports, theatre, street parties, hiking, activities for young people, a beer festival with rock bands, including Salvapantallas, and countless artistic galas, make Yaiza the most cheerful meeting point to say goodbye to summer.
4 Literature
SIMON & SCHUSTER celebrate 100 years
by Joseph Aloysiu
I know that I and others of my colleagues have recently mentioned and appraised some of the great new titles and the special offers that Simon & Schuster are still making to their membership of readers.
The esteemed publishing house have done so again this week by inviting one of their female authors, Lisa Jewell, an opportunity to pen an update on her recent work to accompany a newsletter S & S have since sent out to inform readers of three of Lisa´s books that are still in stock.
Lisa wrote
Hello everyone!
Summer felt like it took a while to get started this year and I didn’t really start to feel summery vibes until the beginning of August – and now August is nearly over, and September is just around the corner! Oh no! I’m sad to see the end of summer, but also secretly happy to welcome the return of routine – I do love routine! – and the opportunity to get back to work on book 23 which has now been delivered to my editors and my agent and thus far had a hugely enthusiastic reaction. But even really good drafts need input from fresh eyes and I’m excited to make their suggested improvements. The book currently has no title, but is slated for publication next summer, and I cannot wait for you all to read it!
But happily, I do still have my summer holiday to look forward to – a week in a big villa in Ibiza with my family and extended family. We get home on the 31st August and then it is back to work on the 2nd September for me, and back to school for my youngest daughter on the 6th.
After that it will be time to start book 24. I have my opening scene in mind, and I’m just going to jump in at that point and see where it goes. It blows my mind sometimes what an amazing job I have and how lucky I am that I get to do it every day, every month, year after year, it really does.
Anyway, I hope you’re all enjoying these fading days of summer, and I’m sure a lot of you are already looking forward to the mellow days ahead, to knitwear, dark nights, blazing fires, hot chocolate and of course – more reading!
Until next month, I am sending you all lots of love, Lisa
Meanwhile Simon & Schuster would refer you to Lisa´s in-stock titles, including:-
Then She Was Gone
A Novel
By Lisa Jewell
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the New York Times bestselling author of Invisible Girl and None of This Is True comes a “riveting” (PopSugar) and “acutely observed family drama” (People) that delves into the lingering aftermath of a young girl’s disappearance.
Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was fifteen, the youngest of three. Beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers, and half of a teenaged golden couple. Ellie was days away from an idyllic post-exams summer vacation, with her whole life ahead of her.
And then she was gone.
Now, her mother Laurel Mack is trying to put her life back together. It’s been ten years since her daughter disappeared, seven years since her marriage ended, and only months since the last clue in Ellie’s case was unearthed. So when she meets an unexpectedly charming man in a café, no one is more surprised than Laurel at how quickly their flirtation develops into something deeper. Before she knows it, she’s meeting Floyd’s daughters—and his youngest, Poppy, takes Laurel’s breath away.
Because looking at Poppy is like looking at Ellie. And now, the unanswered questions she’s tried so hard to put to rest begin to haunt Laurel anew. Where did Ellie go? Did she really run away from home, as the police have long suspected, or was there a more sinister reason for her disappearance? Who is Floyd, really? And why does his daughter remind Laurel so viscerally of her own missing girl?
The publishing house also reminded us of
The House We Grew Up In
A Novel By Lisa Jewell
From the New York Times bestselling author of None of This Is True and Then She Was Gone comes an unforgettable saga that follows the Bird family and how one tragedy ripples throughout their lives for years.
Meet the picture-perfect Bird family: pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and towheaded twins Rory and Rhys, one an adventurous troublemaker, the other his slighter, more sensitive counterpart. Their father is a sweet, gangly man, but it’s their beautiful, free-spirited mother Lorelei who spins at the center. In those early years, Lorelei tries to freeze time by filling their simple brick house with precious mementos. Easter egg foils are her favorite. Craft supplies, too. She hangs all of the children’s art, to her husband’s chagrin.
Then one Easter weekend, a tragedy so devastating occurs that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass and the children have become adults, while Lorelei has become the county’s worst hoarder. She has alienated her husband and children and has been living as a recluse. But then something happens that beckons the Bird family back to the house they grew up in—to finally understand the events of that long-ago Easter weekend and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.
The list concluded with
The Night She Disappeared
A Novel By Lisa Jewell
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of None of This Is True comes “her best thriller yet” (Harlan Coben, New York Times bestselling author) about a young couple’s disappearance on a gorgeous summer night, and the mother who will never give up trying to find them.
On a beautiful summer night in a charming English suburb, a young woman and her boyfriend disappear after partying at the massive country estate of a new college friend.
One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the Dark Place, the dense forest is the writer’s favorite place for long walks and it’s on one such walk that she stumbles upon a mysterious note that simply reads, “DIG HERE.”
Could this be a clue towards what has happened to the missing young couple? And what exactly is buried in this haunted ground?
“Utterly gripping with richly drawn, hugely compelling characters, this is a first-class thriller with heart” (Lucy Foley, New York Times bestselling author) that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
5 Live Jazz Sunday Tonight 1 Sept
ALAN BARNES (sax & clarinet)
Jim Pollard (piano) Terry Hutchins (guitar)
Mike Pratt (d bass) Brian Greene (drums)
preview by Jazz In Reading
Alan is a much loved regular guest artist at Pangbourne and we are delighted to have him back again in 2024.
His range and brilliance have made him a “first call” for studio and live work since his precocious arrival on the scene more than thirty years ago.
His recorded catalogue is immense. He has made over thirty albums as leader and co-leader alone, and the list of his session and side-man work includes Bjork, Bryan Ferry, Michel LeGrande, Clare Teale, Westlife, Jools Holland and Jamie Cullum. He has toured and played residencies with such diverse and demanding figures as Ruby Braff, Freddie Hubbard, Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Ken Peplowski, Harry Allen and Conte Candoli.
In British jazz, the young Barnes was recognized – and hired – by the established greats of the time: Stan Tracy, John Dankworth, Kenny Baker, Bob Wilber, and Humphrey Lyttelton. But he is equally respected for his longstanding and fruitful collaborations with contemporaries such as David Newton, Bruce Adams, and Martin Taylor.
Alan Barnes’s unique musicianship, indefatigable touring, and warm rapport with audiences have made him uniquely popular in British jazz. He has received over 25 British Jazz Awards, most recently in 2014 for clarinet, and has twice been made BBC Jazz Musician of the Year.
Barnes’ melodic sense bypasses the usual scale-running clichés that pepper the playing of lesser bop disciples.
Peter Marsh, BBC Music Review.
His stylistic range is quite phenomenal… He has a wonderful capacity for suggesting a given style without actually imitating anyone.
Dave Gelly, Masters Of The Jazz Saxophone.
I was relishing the prospect of Barnes’s casually consummate musicianship, deadpan humour (he could be a comedian, if jazz ever fails him), and indomitable belief in a respected place for the music’s rich history in this eclectic and often forgetful world.
John Fordham – The Guardian.
Barnes plays music that was radical 50 years ago but he infuses it with so much passion and energy you could believe it was minted on the spot, which is always part of the story with jazz.
John L. Walters, The Guardian.
Coming next to Pangbourne Jazz Club
6 October: Vasilis Xenopoulos, saxophone
3 November: Lee Gibson, vocalist
17 November: Pete Roth Trio featuring Bill Bruford
** This is just to let you know that tickets are now on sale for these three great jazz performances coming up at Progress Theatre
Live Jazz Friday 27th September
STEVE WATERMAN Latin Jazz Quartet
previews by Jazz In Reading
Steve Waterman is one of Britain’s finest and most versatile trumpet and flugelhorn players. He works regularly on the British and International jazz scene. His Latin jazz credentials are of the highest quality including being a favourite and regular participant at the Havana Jazz Festival, to which he was first invited in 2002..
Live Jazz Friday 25th October
PERFECT STRANGER
Unfinished Business album tour
Always on the look out to offer something unique to put before our jazz-loving audience, we were approached by Chris Sansom with the concept of a ten piece band performing his compositions, first incubated in the creative juices by Chris in the 1970s, using ‘classical’ principles, incorporating the musical vocabulary and sounds of jazz and rock.
Live Jazz Friday 12 December
SOULTIME play music of Bobby Timmons
SoulTime! Is a new and exciting jazz quartet dedicated to exploring the music of pianist, and composer Bobby Timmons and committed to presenting the music in the spirit in which it was originally created, with plenty of melody, soul, and down-home grooves.
all events at Progress Theatre
The Mount, Off Christchurch Road
Reading RG1 5HL
6 Live Jazz
MUSIC THAT´S GOING PLACES
previewed by Rob Adams´ newsletter
September is often a bit quiet in the wake of the summer festivals but there’s quite a lot going on this time.
The superb pianist Zoe Rahman headlines the first in a series of concerts curated by saxophonist Helena Kay at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on Thursday 19th. Zoe will be playing solo piano before Helena joins her in a duo that has its roots in the octet that recorded Zoe’s 2023 album, Colour of Sound. This will be their first public performance as a duo but having played in the octet and rehearsed with Zoe recently, Helena says the two experiences are similar, with Zoe injecting the same energy, passion and imagination into the duo as she does the larger ensemble. The wonderfully gifted Nathan Somevi, whose hybrid guitar playing has been attracting much attention, opens the concert with his trio.
Tommy Smith realises a long-held ambition when he plays a solo saxophone concert in Glasgow Cathedral on Friday 20th. Familiar tunes and melodic improvisations that make the most of the Cathedral’s natural acoustics will showcase Tommy’s magnificent tone production in a space that boasts wonderful gothic architecture and eight hundred years of history.
One of the leading jazz singers of our time, Kurt Elling continues his creative partnership with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra with concerts in Elgin Town Hall (Thursday 26th), Perth Concert Hall (Friday 27th), Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (Saturday 28th) and Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh (Sunday 29th). Evergreen songs from Rodgers & Hart and Jimmy Van Heusen, big band classics by Ellington and Basie and Kurt’s customarily adventurous adaptations of modern jazz classics and 1980s pop hits will make these concerts unmissable.
The multi-national ensemble Atlantic Road Trip takes its exciting, sophisticated blend of jazz and various folk traditions on a UK and Ireland tour that includes the inaugural gig for a new venture, Glasgow Jazz Club at Blackfriars, on Tuesday 17th. There are gigs also at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, the Blue Lamp in Aberdeen and the always popular Islay Jazz Festival. The quintet, with saxophonist-low whistle player Paul Towndrow, Chicagoan trumpeter Chad McCullough and Slovakian vibraphonist Miro Herak at its heart, will be playing music from its album One, which has earned high praise internationally.
Jazz at the Merchants House in Glasgow opens a new season of concerts with the brilliantly supple and propulsive drummer Stephen Henderson’s Modern Vikings on Sunday 22nd. Featuring saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski, guitarist Graeme Stephen, pianist Fergus McCreadie and bassist David Bowden, the group recently released its first album, Tales of the Skald, to enthusiastic reviews. The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, Perth Theatre and the Blue Lamp in Aberdeen are also included in an extensive promotional tour.
Young musicians living in Scotland who are between the ages of 18 and 27 are invited to enter the BBC Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician award. Now in its second year, the award aims to encourage and highlight the wealth of talent within Scotland’s vibrant jazz scene. The final will be hosted by Seonaid Aitken at BBC Scotland’s Pacific Quay headquarters in Glasgow on Sunday 24th November in front of a live audience and broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland. The deadline is 23:59 on Sunday 15th September.
MUSIC THAT´S GOING PLACES in September
Aberdeen
Blue Lamp
Sun 1: Marisha Addison Qrt & the Struttin’ Futrets (2pm)
Thu 19: Atlantic Road Trip
Thu 26: Modern Vikings
Krakatoa
Fri 13: Mahuki
Edinburgh
Outhouse
Thu 5, 19: Playtime
Queen’s Hall
Thu 19: Zoe Rahman with Helena Kay and Nathan Somevi Trio
Sun 29: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra with Kurt Elling
Traverse Theatre
Wed 11: Espen Eriksen Trio
Mon 16: Atlantic Road Trip
Mon 23: Modern Vikings
Sun 29: Triptic
Mon 30: Lulo Reinhardt & Yuliya Lonskaya
Elgin
Elgin Town Hall
Thu 26: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra with Kurt Elling
Glasgow
Blackfriars
Tue 17: Atlantic Road Trip
Glasgow Cathedral
Fri 20: Tommy Smith solo saxophone
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Sat 28: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra with Kurt Elling
Hug and Pint
Wed 11: Mahuki
Merchants House
Sun 22: Modern Vikings
London
606 Club
Sun 1: Charlie Wood & Robin Aspland
Mon 2: Sophie Alloway
Thu 12: Sarah Gillespie
Wed 18: Iain Ballamy
Thu 26: Giorgio Serci & Antonio Forcione
Sun 29: Liane Carroll
Pizza Express
Sun 8: Atlantic Road Trip
Mon 23: Mahuki
Ronnie Scott’s
Mon 9 – Sun 15: Curtis Stigers
Tue 17 – Thu 19: Guy Barker Big Band
Sat 21: Ian Shaw
Sun 22: Pamela Knowles
Mon 23: Sean Gibbs Big Band
Wed 25 – Sat 28: Nigel Kennedy
Mon 20: Catherine Russell
New Galloway
Catstrand
Sun 1: Atlantic Road Trip
Sat 28: Lulo Reinhardt & Yuliya Lonskaya
Perth
Perth Concert Hall
Fri 27: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra with Kurt Elling
Perth Theatre
Fri 13: Modern Vikings
Wed 25: Lulo Reinhardt & Yuliya Lonskaya
As always, this list isn’t intended to be comprehensive; other gigs are available.
The only known recording of Irish guitar master Louis Stewart and the man Pat Metheny calls “the father of modern jazz guitar” results from a hastily arranged concert in Dublin on Boxing Night in 1982. The pair had met in New York the previous year and when Hall turned up in Dublin just before Christmas the following year, hoping to play a gig, word of mouth was enough to ensure a full house. Early reviews have described the album as “a classic” and one “that can stand alongside any jazz recording
Saxophonist Phil Bancroft launched his recording career as a leader with an album that was inspired by meeting two musicians who gave him an immediate sense that they could work together. Phil brought them – London bassist Steve Watts and New York-based drummer Marcello Pellitteri – to Edinburgh to play a week in Henry’s Cellar Bar before recording Swings and Roundabouts.
7 Jazz On Air
HOT BISCUITS
served by Steve Bewick
Hello.
We have another great edition of Hot Biscuits lined up to deliver on air from my mix-cloud.
Mike Farmers’ Quartet shines in a live set featuring Jim Faulkner, James Adolpho and Philip Bennett.
Other tracks and artists lined for this broadcast are favourites like Luís Martelo on trumpet playing `Adeus Porto` and Emil de Waal+ and Lee Morgan playing `One for Fran`.
You will also hear ESPIAL an improvising trio of Josephine Davies plkaying saxophones, David Beebee on electric piano and Martin Pyne on vibraphone, balafon, and drums and percussion. and Alex Garnett with his `Bunch of Five.
Listen out, too, for the Nigel Price Organ Trio performing `Kid Gloves`.
If this looks interesting follow the link below, enjoy the music you hear and please Pass It On.
Join me on
www.mixcloud.com/stevebewick/ 24/07
8 A Reader´s Perspective. All Points Forward.
BREAD – A SWEET SURRENDER
by Peter Pearson
Bread have always been one of my favourite groups. I have their albums, have been to their concerts and followed their musical career; the break -ups, the reunions, even the subtle change of name to David Gates and Bread manifesting the frictions between their two principal songwriters that had been the undercurrent to the break-ups.
Bread – A Sweet Surrender-The Musical Journey of David Gates & Co. written by Malcolm C Searles is the definitive account of their musical career from their individual musical beginnings through to the final reunion of the band in 1996 and solo careers thereafter.
As a band Bread are cast in the soft rock category and in that genre they were supreme but, individually, their musical careers covered the entire spectrum of popular music. Their musical credentials were of the highest order.
From songs such as Simon and Garfunkels, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, The Carpenters smash hit, For All We Know, to artists like Duane Eddy, Elvis Presley, Brian Wilson, Linda Rondstat and many, many more, the bands individual members have been involved in the music of others.
David Gates was born into a musical family in 1940. His father was a band director and his mother a piano teacher. By the time he reached High School he was proficient in piano, violin, bass and guitar. He formed his first band, The Accents, with other Tulsa High School musicians around 1957. Their pianist, Claude Russel Bridges, subsequently changed his name to Leon Russell.
In the same year they backed Chuck Berry in concert and released a single, the A side of which was written by Gates, and was titled Jo-Baby, dedicated to his childhood sweetheart, Jo Rita, whom he married in 1959 and to whom he is still married to this day.
In 1961 he moved with his wife and two children to Los Angeles. Leon Russell made the same move and for a short time they became musical partners. Whilst continuing to write songs, Gates worked as a copy writer, studio musician and producer and arranger for artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Merle Haggard, Duane Eddy and Brian Wilson. His songs were recorded by Brenda Lee, Johnny Burnette and Bobby Vee but he was itching to become a recording artist and performer in his own right. In 1967 he produced and arranged the debut album of Pleasure Fair, of which Robb Royer was a member. Royer was writing with James Griffin as a team and introduced him to David. Vocally, Gates and Griffin were a perfect match and together with Royer they formed Bread.
Their self-titled album was released in 1969 with session musician Jim Gordon on drums. It peaked at 127 on the Billboard 200.
For their second album, On The Waters, in 1970 they brought in drummer, Mike Botts, as a permanent member of the band. This time the album hit number 12 on Billboard and spawned a number one hit single, Make it With You composed by Gates.
It established them as a major recording and touring band.
After three albums in 1971 Royer left the band following conflict, initially with Gates, over his studio dominance but aggravated by a falling out with Botts. He continued his songwriting partnership with Griffin which, together with Fred Karlin in 1971, gained them an Academy Award for the song For All We Know, written for the 1970 film Lovers and Strangers.
He was replaced by Larry Knechtel a keyboard player and bassist and member of the collective group of studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. Knechtel was a giant within the music industry, respected both for his musical ability and for his demeanour. After playing in Duane Eddy’s band for several years and continuing to work with him in the studio, Knechtel became part of the Los Angeles session musician scene, working with Phil Spector as a pianist to help create Spector’s famous phenomenon, The Wall Of Sound. Amongst a host of studio credits, he appeared with four different artists at the Monterey Pop Festival; he played bass for Elvis Presley’s ‘Comeback’ TV special, played Hammond B-3 organ on the Beach Boys’ landmark Pet Sounds album, played bass on debut albums for The Byrds and The Doors, and arranged and performed Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, for which he earned a Grammy award. As a member of Bread he played the lead guitar on The Guitar Man.With the addition of Knechtel this became the classic Bread studio album line-up.
Over the following years I was able to see, live in concert in the UK, David Gates as a solo act, David Gates and Bread-minus James Griffin but it was not until their final reunion in 1996 that I was able to see that classic line up live in concert.
Following the change in personnel the band continued to have album and single success. Baby I’m A Want You, Everything I Own and Diary were chart hits and 1972’s album, Guitar Man, produced three top twenty singles the title track-Sweet Surrender and Aubrey.
Tensions within the group were simmering however. David Gates had become the defacto leader of the group. All eleven of their charting singles had been Gates’ compositions-chosen as A sides by their label, Elektra.
James Griffin’s songs tended to have a slightly harder edge. He thought that the band should introduce more variety in choice of singles and that his songs should be receiving more exposure. Few Bread fans would argue that Griffin’s compositions such as Games Of Magic, Just Like Yesterday and Look What You’ve Done are in any way inferior to those of David Gates. Nevertheless it was Gate’s compositions that had driven the bands success.
A follow up to the Guitar Man album was scheduled for 1973 and amidst these simmering tensions the group gathered to consider song selections. David Gates had brought Clouds and Sail Around the World to the table and the band had committed to tape two of James Griffin’s compositions.
In David Gates words – “Some of the material was not of sufficient quality. It was starting to get poor in my opinion. We were unable to match the quality of songs, top to bottom, that we’d had on our first five albums and I didn’t like what James and Rob Royer were bringing in. And yet I had no right to ask them to go back and rewrite, because we had an agreement that we’d each be responsible for 50 percent of the album. Maybe my songs weren’t as good that time either. We finished four cuts, I listened to them and thought, we’ve lost it here”.
At the same time the band were nearing contract renewal with Elektra and James Griffin was holding out from signing unless he received a commitment to having a single released.
It was all starting to come apart and the band decided to go their separate ways.
David Gates embarked on a moderately succesful solo career, as did James Griffin, though with less success, and to make matters worse started to indulge in substance abuse. Mike Botts toured and recorded with Linda Rondstat and Dan Fogelberg, whilst Larry Knechtel returned to session work.
Gates assembled a touring band with the ever faithfull Larry Knechtel, Jim Gordon on drums and the excellent studio guitarist Dean Parks, with vocal support from Carol Carmichael.
The first reunion of the band came in 1976 with Elektra requesting another album after a “best of” compilation met with great success. With some reservations the band returned to the studio and cut the 1977 album Lost Without Your Love.
The four members of Bread (along with session guitarist Dean Parks) toured throughout the spring of 1977 to support their comeback album. After a short break, they commenced the tour’s third leg that summer without Griffin, whom Gates failed to invite after further rising tensions and Griffin’s worsening substance abuse troubles. They ended the year with no further plans to record again as a group.
In 1978 David Gates enjoyed success as a solo artist with the hit singles Goodbye Girl, (from the film The Goodbye Girl) and Took the Last Train. He then continued to tour with Botts and Knechtel as “David Gates & Bread”. The tour came to the UK where I saw them at the Manchester Apollo. Announcements about an on-going legal battle with James Griffin over the use of the name of Bread were made from the stage. Nonetheless the tour continued and whilst in the UK the band filmed “The Bread Special” for BBC TV.
With on-going litigation still in the air David Gates semi retired to become a rancher. James Griffin founded the band Black Tie with ex Eagle, Randy Meisner and Billy Swan. Later he formed “The Remingtons” a country rock oriented combo.
Mike Botts and Larry Knechtel resumed their previous work.
Whilst the ranching life suited David Gates he maintained a studio on his land and continued composing. By the start of the 90’s he was beginning to get the itch to record and perform again. With several new compositions under his belt he approached country artist Billy Dean to see if there might be any interest in a collaboration. The comeback started to develop culminating in a new album, Love Is Always Seventeen.
Eventually, with Bread best of compilations still in high demand, third parties started to work behind the scenes to get the band together again. The three others were prepared to put aside their differences but Gates was reticent. Ever the businessman he held out for amongst other things 50% of all proceeds in order to participate in a tour. Grudgingly agreement was reached and the band embarked in 1996 on a world tour backed with a string section.
Seeing them in the UK, both at Manchester and Liverpool, the band were in superb form. Arrangements were made for shows to be recorded for a live album. Sadly the album has never been released. David Gates put the block on because he was not entirely happy with the quality. In this he was at variance with other group members and the recording engineer. Anyone wanting to witness a snippet of what they have missed can catch a six song live soundboard recording of the Birmingham concert by visiting the Dojotone Youtube channel.
The tour was a great success and the band parted on good terms with hopes of continuing the comeback.
Once again David Gates proved to be the exception. He ended the year with a greeting to fellow members that read “Fun’s over. The well is dry. Have a merry Christmas”.
But it was not the end for him. He was keen to continue a solo career and some thought that this had always been his ulterior motive for the reunion.
He continued to tour solo and issued the album, David Gates Songbook: A Lifetime in Music.
In 2003 I saw him play the Manchester Bridgewater Hall (left) and his voice at 63 was still intact.
Now permanently retired he and Robb Royer are the only surviving members. James Griffin and Mike Botts both died in 2005 followed by Larry Knechtel in 2009.
I have always considered the Eagles to be the standard for perfection in live performance. In my opinion Bread were up there with them. Griffin and Gates produced perfect harmonies. Unfortunately, they were polar opposites in personality.
Gates was the perfectionist, non drinker, non smoker, no drugs. Everything had to be just right. He would schedule recordings for between 9am-5pm.There was to be no late night sessions. He would turn up on time armed with his instruments and briefcase of material and expect the same of others. James Griffin was a free spirit. He developed a drug habit. As much as he admired Gates’s song-writing he felt that his own contribution to their oeuvre was under-valued.
In my view Bread without James Griffin were never as good as when he was with them.
9 Island Insights
THANK YOU LANZAROTE ….
now can I please have my dominoes back?
by Norman Warwick
You may, or may not, have noticed the absence of this column over the past six weeks or so. It had been virtually an ever-present over the past five years, delivering news, previews, interviews and reviews of live arts events that have taken place on Lanzarote. However, I visited Mioptica (other opticians are available) in Playa Blanca for an eye test in case I needed a change in my prescription glasses and the first in what was to be a long row of dominoes fell over.
And here we are seven months later just beginning to feel as if we have the strength to pick the dominoes up again and stand them in line.
However, as the dominoes tumbled all I could see was spots and dots before my eyes, and my wife then was attacked by pneumonia and hospitalised for a couple of weeks in Arrecife. We saw sights on the island we had never seen before and realised we had perhaps taken for granted a range of fantastic health services and patient and caring medical staff, modern equipment and a superb level of hospital cleanliness that is available here on Lanzarote,
The young lady who conducted my eye test at the opticians was very concerned that I couldn´t see the writing on the wall. What writing? What wall??
We left there and managed to get a following day appointment with the doctor who told me I had a complicated cataract in my right eye that was too far away from also my lesser cataracted left eye to be seen. The doctor told me that he would seek an appointment for me to have my cataracts removed but that even with his signalling the urgent need for treatment it would still be a waiting process of several months.
Dee, at this time, was in perfect health, going to her twice a weekly yoga sessions and joining her yoginis for a Sunday hike along the coast line from Playa Blanca to El Golfo.
I was able to drive, slowly and safely along the back roads but then the next few dominoes fell over. Flat tyres, a somehow drained battery, led to a couple of rides on the trailer provided by our roadside assistance, who arrived quickly on two or three occasions over a period of a week or so. We simply rang our insurance company, they contacted their nearest driver to where we had come to a stop. The driver rang us back immediately and then told us he was about ten minutes away…and he arrived in eight.
We had to drive to Arrecife a few times to order tyres, then to have them fitted etc etc. The management and staff at our Nissan dealership is an award winning team, and those awards are displayed in plain sight.
Nevertheless, a hugely frenetic week, just a few days prior to going in for my first eye operation, cost us over 300 euros in taxi fares, but fortunately all was well enough with our overworked little Micra for it to get us back into Arrecife for my first eye operation. This was after an appointment with the anaesthetist so that he could confirm that my bloods, chest and heart all subject to diabetes etc were in good enough working order for me to have the operation.
The operation itself was, to my amazement, nothing to worry about and I was in and out in about twenty minutes, and the improvement was initially incredible and over the next few days of eye drops became increasingly thrilling. Yellow post boxes and skies and seas of different hues of blue. Who knew?
My wife, Dee, became my eye-dropper and dropped them in at the prescribed dosage. She must have done well because the cataract surgeon, a very friendly but busy young man gave me a check-up and was so satisfied with his and her work that we are now expecting a call to have my left eye done.
However, over the next fortnight or so Dee began to feel ill with what she called a bit of a cold, and nothing to worry about. About six days later she had deteriorated considerably and so I drove her to the Health Centre in Playa Blanca, and I sat outside in the car waiting for her to come out with a prescription of some kind.
Instead a man in a white coat ran out of the health centre towards the car.
A man in white coat. They´re coming to take me away, I thought, remembering a comedy pop song that had charted in the UK in the sixties when I was a kid.
However, it was far more serious than that, and told me he had called an ambulance to take Dee to the hospital in Arrecife as she had signs of pneumonia and was having breathing difficulties.
OMG. Who will put my eye drops in I thought as I told him I would follow that ambulance. The doctor warned me not to try to follow an ambulance, and he was right. As it sped away it disappeared from sight within seconds. About an hour later, I arrived and parked my car at the hospital. The first thing I noticed with my good eye was that all the signs were in Spanish, and not a single word on them looked like pneumonia. My wife speaks Spanish at a level at which she can communicate but I could only ask “Donde esta mi esposa?”
I took a while to find her, all wired up to all sorts of equipment including, worryingly, an oxygen cylinder. I suddenly realised how worn out she looked, and of course that worried me.
However, I needn´t have worried. Over the next two weeks I visited her every day and I learned to feed the five cats we have, and even found out where Dee stored their food. I managed to put my own eye drops in three times a day, and even fine-dined on bread and jam for a week.
When I was finally allowed to bring Dee home only the cats were more excited than I was.
My right eye was so incredible, and Dee looked so much better that it seemed like those dominoes had stopped falling over…..
Within a week Dee was claiming to be fully recovered, so I officially handed the eye drops back to her, I was slightly concerned when she said she wanted to get some fresh air and was going to drive into town and wander round the shops.
Well, that should have been a step in the right direction but instead it was a miss-step in the downward direction as she fell up some concrete steps in the pavement by the boat on the roundabout.
Of course I didn´t know that until she arrived home an hour later, her face literally covered in blood with a number of cuts and bruises on her face, and a particularly severe gash on her forehead. I drove her straight back to the health centre where she was kindly and quickly treated.
She had stitches placed on her forehead and some slight, light cleansing of her other wounds. Her eyes puffed up over the next week but didn´t quite blacken and when she returned for the removal of the stitches a proper cleansing of the remaining wounds and I when that was finished I spied with my little good eye that, My God, she´s beautiful!
There hasn´t been a rattle of another falling domino for a couple of weeks now.
So it is time to get serious, and to use these pages to pay tribute to this wonderful island and its people who seem to us to take pride in whatever their role is in society and who genuinely seem to treat all men and women as equal.
We have, over the past few weeks received professional excellence, common courtesy and lots of smiles. Services have been prompt and reliable and all we have done is cause problems for doctors, nurses, roadside assistance and car dealerships.
Thanks to their reactions, we are back on the mend and on the road, wandering the sidetracks and detours we usually take to deliver our news from all across the arts on Lanzarote.
For instance, this weekend sees the Los Remedios Festivities in Yaiza and next week we will tell you all about it…..in glorious technicolour !
Soon after that there will be the Artisan Fair in Mancha Blanca.
We hope you´ll join us, now that we´re back again. Thank you for your patience.
Of course, we also offer a special thank you to all the people, official and unofficial, who have helped us through what has been a troubling time.
It is churlish to make comparisons between a country of birth that gave us so much joy and a new country of residence that has so many natural advantages; sun, sea, sand and smiles are a panacea for most ailments.
Honestly, though, I´m sure we couldn´t have been better treated anywhere in the world.
We look at jazz legends, proven and potential and take part in a summer survey, or perhaps it was a summary, by London Sinfonettia who undertake so much musical and educative work that they not only contribute to their communities but then assess all sorts of key points to see how effective that work has been. This makes their art in the community increasingly effective.
We will take a flight to the states to look through the personal jazz archives of Joni Mitchell and to collect news of her fantastic release of a newly packaged collection.
We will drop in at Jazz Junction where the whisperers of gossip and rumour will no doubt make much of Joni´s collection and will probably inform us that the new post-humour of Eva Cassidy music has been packaged as a Jazz Collection. We will then head straight down to the nearest bookstore and purchase a copy of Eva Cassidy: Songbird by those who knew her.
This will be a read I really look forward to but, of course, we´ll first have to build a bigger shelf to make room for the book, and then read all the other unread titles already on that shelf.
So you have all that to look forward to next week, and don´t forget there are almost 1,200 free to read arts related items in our easy to negotiate archives !
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