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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 2023).

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!"

Postage

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Miners' Picnic @ Woodhorn, Ashington. Music inc. Northern Monkey Brass Band (3:00-3:50pm); New York Brass Band (4:00-4:55pm).
Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Jeremy McMurray's Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Ropner Park, Stockton TS18 4EF. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 13: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 13: Infusion Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 13: Alice Grace & Pawel Jedrzejewski @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv.).

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Ruth Lambert Quartet @ The Cherry Tree

Ruth Lambert (vcl), Paul Edis (pno), Mick Shoulder (bs), Rob Walker (dms).
Lance built up this gig and the expected gastonomic treats: the evening lived up to billing on both counts.
Three sentences (one of Dickensian length) on my choice of food should suffice.
Squid starter - brilliant (that's Pinteresque brevity)!
Pudding - Spiced Plum Crumble and double cream - crunched as well as crumbled and was spicy enough to prepare you for the mean streets where gritters were already out (increasing verbosity)!
As for the main course: chefs and jazz musicians are alike - they are alchemists transforming the known and familiar into unexpected delights; if "haddock" prompts images of batter, chips and mushy peas, try "Roast Haddock with Savoy Cabbage, Morteaux Sausage, Bacon & Red Wine" - amazing -think of rich, warming Coq au Vin, but with delicious, flaky haddock, and you are getting close. A great winter dish: how do they do it at the price? (Sorry - four sentences and one of them is a cheat, grammar-wise!)
Ruth, relaxed from the start, was in excellent voice throughout and was more than ably supported by the band. Easing into the evening with the silky-smooth "You and the night....", they worked through a lovely selection of standards such as "The way you look tonight" and "Long ago and far away" as well as some I'd not heard before such as the ballad, "But beautiful". I'm always amazed at the cleverness of the lyrics: "Santa Baby" and "Let's do it.." can raise a smile on the printed page - well-performed they are little gems. No modern lyricists, in any genre, come close in my opinion.
All of love's paradoxes were there in the set-lists: "I fall in love too easily" being followed immediately by "Let's do it, let's fall in love", but I suppose there is logic in yearning for "Someone to watch over me" after chronicling "A day in the life of a fool". In spite of the vicissitudes of love and the recent monsoon weather, optimism prevailed in "Wrap your troubles in dreams" which reminds us that "sunshine always follows the rain": Paul, enjoying having a baby-grand to play, also managed to sneak "Somewhere over the rainbow" into a second half solo (or did I imagine it?)
My pick of the night has to be "Santa Baby". Ruth was grateful for the restaurant's Christmas tree legitimising a song which she would "gladly sing all the year round". The way Ruth sings it, I, for one, would gladly hear it all the year round. Reserving it for Christmas?? Bah, humbug!
Jerry Edis.

2 comments :

Lance said...

Thank you Jerry - sounds like I really did miss a good one. The quote re Chefs and jazz musicians is brilliant and should be emblazened above the stage!
I don't suppose you'll still want the bag of crisps I owe you!

John Taylor said...

So that was Pauls family two tables from us. I must say I agree with everything he said. Only one small problem - the background music in the interval. It was erratic. Tracks from Jamie Cullem - not a match for Paul and co.

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