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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 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

17602 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 876 of them this year alone and, so far, 21 this month (Dec. 11).

From This Moment On ...

December

Thu 12: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay. 12 noon. £27.00. (inc. three -course meal).
Thu 12: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-6:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 12: Stuart Turner @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 12: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Jeremy McMurray (keys); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Donna Hewitt (tenor sax); Kevin Eland (trumpet); Ron Smith (bass).

Fri 13: Dean Stockdale Trio @ Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Bellavana @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Customs House Big Band @ Stocksfield Community Association. 7:00pm. Featuring Ruth Lambert.
Fri 13: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 13: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £19.00. + bf. First night of two.
Fri 13: Ransom Van @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Fri 13: Boys of Brass @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 9:00pm. £10.00.

Sat 14: Jambone @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:15pm. Free but ticketed.
Sat 14: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm.
Sat 14: Red Kites Jazz @ Staiths Café, Autumn Dr., Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 14 Lapwing Jazz Trio @ Three Sheets to the Wind, Alnwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 14: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £19.00. + bf. Second night of two.
Sat 14: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 15: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 12 noon. £8.50. Xmas party feat. Musicians Unlimited + Customs House Big Band. SOLD OUT!
Sun 15: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 2:00pm.
Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Mitch Laddie Band @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb blues power trio.
Sun 15: Leeway @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.
Sun 15: Alligator Gumbo @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 12 noon. £9.95. ‘Festive Turkey Dinner’. Book now: 0191 266 8137.
Mon 16: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Tue 17: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm.
Tue 17: BBC Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘A Swinging Xmas’.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.
Tue 17: Bellavana @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 7:45-9:35pm. Free.

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

IKE ISAACS by Maurice Summerfield

Ike Isaacs (1919 –1996) was born in Rangoon, Burma. He started playing the guitar professionally while he was a chemistry student at university. In 1946 he moved to England, where he freelanced for many years; and played in the Leslie Douglas Orchestra, the BBC Show Band led by Cyril Stapleton and with the Ted Heath Orchestra for 12 years. He was also the resident guitarist with Chappie D’Amato’s orchestra at Hatchett’s in London in 1949. 

In the mid-1950s, at the age of 16, I was an aspiring jazz guitarist, and listened every week to BBC Radio ’s Guitar Club programme. Introduced by Ken Sykora, the programme featured many leading UK guitarists of the day, including Ivor Mairants and Ike Isaacs, in various small groups. I applied for audience tickets to the BBC for an upcoming broadcast and was delighted when these arrived. I travelled to London and attended a marvellous session. At the end I introduced myself to Ike, told him of my passion for the jazz guitar, and I was delighted to find he was very friendly and hospitable. He was very keen to help me in any way that he could – and within a few weeks I was a guest at his Wembley home for a fabulous curry dinner – prepared by his lovely wife Moira. We kept in touch and when I extended my family’s business to the distribution of musical instruments and accessories, in 1964. I began to see Ike quite frequently. 

Our friendship grew. I asked his advice on certain products and used him in demonstrations and to attend exhibitions. In the 1960s we distributed the Ike Isaacs string line made by British Music Strings Ltd. In the early 1970’s we published an Ike Isaacs guitar solo book as a promotion for Ibanez guitars and in the late 1970s we investigated the possibility of producing an Ibanez Ike Isaacs jazz guitar model. The attached photograph shows Ike and I in London shortly after I passed on a first sample of his Ibanez guitar. 

In the late 1970’s as a founder of the Guitar Appreciation Society of N.E. England I was pleased to have the opportunity to present in concert Ike with a very young Martin Taylor at the Peoples’ Theatre in Heaton. Martin of course initially studied with Ike and still quotes Ike as a major influence. 

I first met Barney Kessel in person at an evening with Ike. Barney lived in London for a year in the late 1960s early 1970s and lived in apartment rented from Ike. Barney told me many times that Ike’s knowledge of the guitar fingerboard was unsurpassed. 

Ike later recorded and played in concert with George Chisholm (1956) and Barney Kessel (1968). He was a busy studio guitarist and played on dozens of film scores. In 1975 he joined Stephane Grappelli and the Diz Disley Trio. 

In the late 1970’s and early 1980s Ike came to Newcastle several times and was a guest in my house. By that time he loved to call me his ‘brother’. He gave an in store demo for Ibanez at Jeavons of Percy Street in the late 1970s. 

Ike moved to Australia in the 1980s, where he taught at the Sydney Guitar School. We kept in regular contact until his death there, of cancer, in 1996.
Maurice S.

1 comment :

Brian said...

Thanks for bringing Ike, Barney, Joe and all the rest to Newcastle in those far off days Maurice. You did all of us, the nyoung, guitar players in the area a great service.

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