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Bebop Spoken There

Ambrose Akinmusire: “ I am certainly always aware of what the masses are doing. And when I see too many people going one way, I'm going another way - even when I don't know what's over that way". DownBeat, March, 2024.

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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Castillo Neuvo Trio + Conor Emery & His ‘Bones Band @ The Grove, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00. (£7.00. student).
Thu 21: Remi Banklyn + Chris Corcoran Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.50. Chicago blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime piano.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Nauta + Remy CB + Last Orders @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). Free.
Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 22: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 23: Jambone @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:30pm. Free (ticketed). End of term performance in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 23: Red Kites Jazz @ Rowlands Gill Community Centre NE39 1JB. 7:00pm. Tickets: £12.00. (gibsidecommunityfarm@gmail.com). A ‘Build a Barn’ fundraiser. BYOB, tea/coffee available.
Sat 23: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00. + bf (book in person at venue - no booking fee!). Featuring pianist Martin Litton.
Sat 23: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 24: Luis Verde @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Verde (alto sax); Joe Steels (guitar); John Pope (double bass); John Hirst (drums). Alto sax brilliance!
Sun 24: Elsie Franklin @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Country blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Sun 24: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Las Vegas Live with the Rat Pack @ The Forum, Billingham.
Sun 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Otterburn Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sun 24: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Note start time - 7:00pm.
Sun 24: Bold Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Monday, March 06, 2017

Great North Big Band Jazz Festival @ Park View Community Centre, Chester le Street. March 3

(Review by Russell/Photo on left from Facebook. Credit will be given when known. Other two by Russell).
The fourteenth edition of the Great North Big Band Jazz Festival relocated to a new venue in the County Durham town of Chester le Street. Since its inception, this annual event in the British big band calendar has been staged in Sunderland on the banks of the Wear. Major redevelopments are continuing apace to transform the heart of the city of Sunderland into a vibrant, progressive place to live, work and study. The University of Sunderland continues to give unstinting support to the jazz community, thus ensuring this indispensable event retains its place on the region’s wider cultural map.
For the first time Park View Community Centre welcomed musicians, organisers and audience to the multi-purpose facility located just off Front Street in an historic part of town, little more than a well-struck six from Durham County Cricket Club. Free on-site parking. Food and drink available and space to accommodate something like twenty-nine bands over three days made this an ideal alternative to Sunderland’s North Shore venue.
A change of venue a necessity, the long weekend’s format remains as before. A Festival Big Band and a guest band – this year Mick Donnelly’s Musicians Unlimited – opened proceedings on a wet Friday evening. Big band fans weren’t to be deterred by a disappointing forecast, turning out in encouraging numbers for this annual curtain raiser. 
The Festival Band is a hand-picked outfit. The many familiar faces in the sections sat, or stood, alongside rising stars of the music. Bill Watson is the man responsible for coaching an on-campus student big band throughout the academic year at Sunderland University in addition to being the busy director of the Great North Big Band Festival. A first-night festival concert in which he participates is, perhaps, his reward. Playing both trumpet and flugelhorn, before turning his thoughts once more to the forthcoming two days of non-stop big band competition is, surely, a form of relaxation! Mick Donnelly (a competition adjudicator) made a guest appearance with the band, playing his usual commanding tenor saxophone. County Durham Music Service has an enviable track record nurturing talent, and one of its recent success stories – Alice Buhaenko – on a short break from her studies at Oxford University, presented the band with a new composition to play and to occupy the piano chair on the evening.
Musicians Unlimited is the pride and joy of Hartlepool. An institution, Mick Donnelly’s big band is something like two decades young. If it’s one o’clock on a Sunday you’re likely as not sitting in the Park Inn listening to the band. Occasionally Donnelly and his band ventures further afield to play a concert to new ears in new surroundings. Park View Community Centre was hearing the band for the first time. America’s Jim Martin featured in the pad as arranger and composer, an arrangement by the late Dave Connolly of Georgia featured veteran late-night saloon bar king Bob Caswell, and that mere whipper-snapper of a rat packer Paul Skerritt gave Wonderwall both barrels. Musicians Unlimited breeds trumpet players – Kevin Eland and Tom Hill but two of them. They had a blast, as did the reeds – Sue Ferris excelling on flute. The engine room lads (Mick Shoulder, bass, and Tom Chapman, drums) worked up a head of steam. Sister Sadie, Gordon Goodwin’s Count Bubba, the opening night of the 2017 Great North Big Band Jazz Festival an hors d’oeuvre of things to come.   
Russell            
Musicians Unlimited: Mick Donnelly (MD/tenor); Alan Catherall, Bob Temple, Tom Hill, Kevin Eland, Bill Watson (trumpets); Dave Brock, John Day, Helen Grainger, Peter Morgan (trombones); Jill Nelson, Kim Webb, Mark Toomey, John Hudson, Sue Ferris (reeds); ? (piano); Mick Shoulder (bass); Tom Chapman (drums); Bob Caswell, Paul Skerritt (vocals).     

1 comment :

Paul Skerritt (on F/b) said...

The unidentified photographer is me!

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