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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.

Friday, July 06, 2018

Taylor Smith & The Roamin' Jasmine @ Kommunity - July 5

Taylor Smith (double bass/vocals); Georgi Petrov (guitar); Darius Blanton (drums); Jose Holloway (trumpet); Peter Gustorfson (trombone).
(Review by Lance).
Here in Newcastle, we have got many New Orleans bands and none who are actually from the Crescent City itself. However, last night that all changed at Kommunity, a trendy Market St. bar and venue where the local dance group Swing Tyne welcomed, all the way from the Big Easy (via Scarborough), Taylor Smith and The Roamin' Jasmine.
Authentic, contemporary, sounds of yesterday played today. No squeaky liquor stick, raspy tailgate tram, washboard, tuba, slap bass or clunking banjo to send you back out into the night. Instead, it was bassist Smith leading from the front singing in a slightly nasal, but not unpleasant, voice, whilst playing bass alongside the full, round tones of the two horns, electric guitar that had maybe dropped by Nashville en route and some solid drumming from Blanton who had surely paraded along South Rampart St. in his time.
The material consisted of some good ol' good ones that Taylor and the boys transformed into good noo good ones without losing the original feel.
Muddy Water was more Muddy Waters than Bing Crosby and perhaps based on the Bessie Smith version. After You've Gone (complete with verse) was another number at one time associated with Bessie. A Big Maybelle number moved us into R'n'B territory; There Will Never Be Another You; an original; Well I Done Got Over it; Blues Shuffle Heart, all foot-tapping fun showing off the band's collective and individual talents. Blues Shuffle Heart had some stunning four bar exchanges between trumpet and trombone that was so much more exciting than the formulaic round of fours between drummer and whoever that invariably bores the pants off me. This musical exchange ensured I kept my pants on! Whilst all this magic was being conjured up on stage, down on the floor, the Swing Tyne dancers were performing their own mysterious art, just as they had done earlier to records by the Metronome All-Stars (Sweet Lorraine w. Frank, Hodges, Shavers etc.); Ellington; BG; Fats and others. My kind of disco or should I say Record Hop?
The set finished with Exactly Like You and It Can't be Me.
An insipid pint of Bud Light, a quick chat with Taylor Smith then back into the groove with Roll on Mississippi Roll on, a song about whisky (I Got Loaded?) then I'm Confessin' by which time I had to leave to hop an eastbound freighter (number 27 bus). It had been yet another evening of unadulterated musical pleasure.
Lance.
PS: Prior to the gig, walking down Northumberland St., I heard someone singing I'm Thru With Love. Must be coming from the HMV store, I thought, then I remembered, the HMV store was no more. I looked about me and there was this attractive young, long blonde-haired, girl busking, singing to a backing tape. Must return to Northumberland St. singers of this calibre are rare.

2 comments :

carstairs said...

I was there with just two of the North East's jazz supporters. Where were they? Great gig!
Come to that, where are the Swing Tyne people at Jazz gigs? Perhaps there is an essential difference in audience expectations ( and massive age difference?)

Lance said...

I'd never been to Kommunity before and when 'er indoors asked me where I was going? I mistakenly replied Kommunications. She didn't look happy.
When I returned she asked me if I'd kommunicated...

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