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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Enrico Tomasso w. The Swing City Trio @ Trinity Church Centre, Gosforth.

Enrico Tomasso (tpt/vcl), Steve Andrews (ten/clt), Roly Veitch (gtr/vcl), Roy Cansdale (bs).
The centre adjoining the church was crowded - surely the hippest congregation in town.
And deservedly so.
This was an evening of jazz that swung, and I use the word advisedly, from delicate chamber jazz to straight down the middle solid stompology.
The delicacy came from, no prizes for guessing, Roly Veitch. Using a lightly amped Epiphone Roly gave us chorded solos a la Carl Kress or Dick McDonough coupled with some nice single string, more modern, explorations. Add his vocals on "I Saw Stars", "I Wished on the Moon", "The Touch of Your Lips" and you had surely the perfect example of, let's call it, "Gentlemanly Jazz" and to hell with the sexists!
Roy Cansdale provided the perfect link, in the absence of a drummer, between guitar and front-line. He was there all the time, a tower of strength in both support and the occasional break or solo - chapeau!
Which brings us to the main event.
Steve and Enrico slugged it out like two heavyweights at Madison Square each alternatively complimenting and outdoing the other. Steve's moment of glory was surely his rendition of "Body and Soul" - he has the Hawkins' sound off to a tee, as well as the licks, yet still managed to make it his own - doubt if I've heard him blow better. Enrico came back counter-punching in the up-tempo section but I think Steve edged that one on points.
Enrico's piece de resistance was Berigan's "I Can't Get Started". I've often thought I never want to hear that tune again yet, when I do, I still love it and Signor Tomasso did it more than justice.
Honours even I guess. Steve played some great clarinet and introduced the numbers with more than a touch of humour whilst Enrico charmed us with his singing - "I've Got The World on a String" being but one delight - and his soaring flights of fantasy into the approaches to the stratosphere.
All this and a full house. Perhaps jazz should move out of the pubs and into the churches!
Lance.

2 comments :

Liz said...

Roly singing "I wished on the moon"
sounds like my idea of Saturday night nostalgia...lovely stuff!
Liz

Roly said...

Thanks for the nice words about the Trinity gig Lance.
I absolutely enjoyed that and what a treat to play to a full room. Playing jazz is a labour of love with a lot of frustations along the way but then, once in a while, you are in a situation which makes you appreciate why you do it.
Re the Epiphone, it's not a semi-acoustic (that usually means acoustic body but with a pick up - a lot of archtop jazz guitars have built in or floating pick ups) - no, the Epi is a pure acoustic instrument. But although the old pre-elec dance band type guitars are built to be loud you still would hardly hear it in a group and that's why pick ups and amps took over in the 40s - Charlie Christian et al.
But to me, nothing touches the pure cutting acoustic rhythm sound, so miking up the gtr thru the PA using a condenser mike is often used by players who want to recreate that type of sound.
I must admit that although for years I've played electric archtop (latterly with Jim Hall being my idol) nevertheless I'm now just more and more drawn to pure acoustic guitar for the dynamic response and touch you can get. Electrification kinda of levels all that out. And to
me '4 to the bar' rhythm on elec archtop usually sounds naff (I've tried it for years and am rarely happy with the basic sound - mellow elec guitar and '4 to bar' rhythm just don't go together. Mind you good old Jim Hall made it work somehow but he would always find a way to make beautiful music.
The player who has turned me on to all this is Bucky Pizzarelli. Although he usually plays a 7 string amped semi acoustic in the Van Epps tradition you sometimes hear him on CD
(eg. I saw stars by Becky Kilgore) on an old acoustic (probably an Epiphone) and he is an absolute master at that '4 to bar' plus chorded solo style. Also Barry Galbraith was great at that.
Ah well, that's enough of my rambling. All interesting stuff.
Roly.

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