Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Raymond Chandler: “ I was walking the floor and listening to Khatchaturian working in a tractor factory. He called it a violin concerto. I called it a loose fan belt and the hell with it ". The Long Goodbye, Penguin 1959.

The Things They Say!

Hudson Music: Lance's "Bebop Spoken Here" is one of the heaviest and most influential jazz blogs in the UK.

Rupert Burley (Dynamic Agency): "BSH just goes from strength to strength".

'606' Club: "A toast to Lance Liddle of the terrific jazz blog 'Bebop Spoken Here'"

The Strictly Smokin' Big Band included Be Bop Spoken Here (sic) in their 5 Favourite Jazz Blogs.

Ann Braithwaite (Braithwaite & Katz Communications) You’re the BEST!

Holly Cooper, Mouthpiece Music: "Lance writes pull quotes like no one else!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Josh Weir: I love the writing on bebop spoken here... I think the work you are doing is amazing.

Postage

16350 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 230 of them this year alone and, so far, 27 this month (April 11).

From This Moment On ...

April

Tue 16: The Horne Section’s Hit Show @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:30pm.
Tue 16: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Bradley Johnston, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.

Wed 17: Bailey Rudd (Minor Recital) @ The Music Studios, Haymarket Lane, Newcastle University. 11:40am. Bailey Rudd (drums). Open to the public.
Wed 17: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 17: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 17: The Horne Section’s Hit Show @ The Gala, Durham. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Wed 17: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 18: NONUNONU @ Elder Beer Café, Chillingham Road, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 18: Knats @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:00pm (doors 7:30pm). £8.00. + bf. Support act TBC.
Thu 18: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime piano.
Thu 18: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Guest band night with Just Friends: Ian Bosworth (guitar); Donna Hewitt (sax); Dave Archbold (keys); Ron Smith (bass); Mark Hawkins (drums).

Fri 19: Cia Tomasso @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. ‘Cia Tomasso sings Billie Holiday’. SOLD OUT!
Fri 19: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 19: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 19: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 19: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Radio Rooms, Berwick. 7:00pm (doors). £5.00.
Fri 19: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Fri 19: Levitation Orchestra + Nauta @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £11.00.
Fri 19: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm. ‘Ella & Ellington’.

Sat 20: Record Store Day…at a store near you!
Sat 20: Bright Street Band @ Washington Arts Centre. 6:30pm. Swing dance taster session (6:30pm) followed by Bright Street Big Band (7:30pm). £12.00.
Sat 20: Michael Woods @ Victoria Tunnel, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Acoustic blues.
Sat 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ St Andrew’s Church, Monkseaton. 7:30pm. £10.00. (inc. a drink on arrival).

Sun 21: Jamie Toms Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 21: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Holy Grale, Durham. 5:00pm.
Sun 21: The Jazz Defenders @ Cluny 2. Doors 6:00pm. £15.00.
Sun 21: Edgar Rubenis @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Blues & ragtime guitar.
Sun 21: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Art Themen with the Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. +bf. JNE. SOLD OUT!

Mon 22: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Breaking News - RIP Chuck Berry.


Word has just come through that Rock and Roll legend Chuck Berry died earlier today (March 18) aged 90.
Jazz fans will recall him from the film Jazz on a Summer's Day and Sweet Little Sixteen but his influence and appeal was far wider. I only saw him live once. I thought it was at Middlesbrough in 1978 but it wasn't so it must have been in Holland at one of the North Sea Jazz Festivals. It was a late start and my memories are somewhat vague save for that incredible duckwalk that drew more applause than any of the solos! Numbers like Johnny B. Goode and No Particular Place to Go stand out for me. For more, go to Steve T's comment.
Lance.
I've just received a heads-up from Russell that Eric Burdon is to sing a tribute to Chuck Berry on Radio 4 at 9am (Sunday March 19).

6 comments :

Steve T said...

Just read this in the middle of the night and immediately switched to news channels but nothing. In America this is massive, like Elvis, a Beatle or MJ.
Said to people at Xmas to expect this one this year. I think most people thought he died years ago.
Although I think the whole Rock and Roll narrative is pure myth - at it's best blues for teenyboppers - Chuck Berry would have been the king of rock and roll in a less racist America and was the best, alongside even more novelty oriented Little Richard, crooner Elvis, bluesier Bo Diddley and the doowop groups.
Although he essentially made the same record over and over, his riffs launched a thousand inferior white groups who made rock and roll for teenyboppers and made a fortune doing it.
He was arguably the most influential guitarist right up until the break through of Hendrix.

Russell said...

Steve, Radio 5 Live broke the news late Saturday. Dotun Adebayo devoted much of his Up All Night programme to the news (Dotun is a big music fan).

Your comments about Berry being the king of rock 'n' roll are spot on. The alternative narrative (Presley etc) is just that,the American media's preferred alternative.

The guitar riffs are legendary (launching a thousand pub bands), Berry's lyrics are second to none.

Steve T said...

Sorry Russell, have to disagree - surely not - Curtis Mayfields lyrics were second to none, and I had to read about his death in a newspaper. What colour was he again?

Russell said...

Sorry Steve...too cryptic for me!

Andy Hudson said...

I left the North East in early ’79 on the Dick Whittington trail (but without the cat!) to put on the First big jazz festival at Alexander Palace in July of that year.- you know the one that didn’t burn down.. This was the start of my partnership with George Wein another nonagenarian jazzer.
There was Hamp, BB King, Muddy Waters, Dizzy, Buddy Rich - In fact arrest the usual suspects. Included was the great musician, lyricist and especially showman Chuck Berry.
He was appearing amidst tax issues with the US government wherein much of his earnings were sequestered to pay back taxes. Those part which weren’t, but I am sure he would consequently declare, were to be paid in $100 bills in an envelope before the “artiste performed on stage”.
I recall handing the envelope to him which he duly opened, counted and put in a voluminous inside pocket, looked at me with those piercing eyes nodded and said “That’s good man.”
10 minutes later he was onstage with a scratch band that we’d put together and blew everyone away.
Jazz it wasn’t - but performance, energy and crowd engagement and reaction showed he had no peers.
Hey 90’s a good innings.
Andy

Steve T said...

Bit of cross reference with what's going on at the Sage I suppose. White people always come along and do Black Music better. How many times today will we hear that without Chuck Berry there'd have been no Beatles, no Stones, no Beach Boys, like that was his contribution.
And somebody like Curtis Mayfield who transcends soul music and twentieth century music generally and should stand with the all time greats doesn't even make it on to the news.

Blog Archive