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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 2024).

The Things They Say!

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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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Thu 03: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 03: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Practices of Freedom workshop @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Book at: www.eventbrite.com.
Thu 03: Alcyona Mick + Juliana Day @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. & £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM (Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music) in assoc. w. Northern Silents & JNE.
Thu 03: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 03: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Guest band night w. '58 Jazz Collective led by trumpeter Kevin Eland with Paul Donnelly (guitar); Donna Hewitt (saxes); Dave Archbold (keys); John Daniel (bass); Alex Cromarty (drums); Darren Moore (percussion) + JAN SPENCELAYH!. Free.

Fri 04: Satoko Fujii @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 04: Amirtha Kidambi w. Manon McCoy @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. £8.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. Gem Arts, JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Ziv Taubenfeld/Olie Brice/Kresten Osgood + Andy Champion + Izumi Kimura & Gerry
Hemingway @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: As I Sing & Breathe @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘Songs & Improvisations’ - Nicols, Dalling & guests.
Fri 04: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 04: John Rowland Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Training @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 2:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘A workshop for musical improvisers’. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Wylam Village Institute, Church Road, Wylam NE41 8AP. Doors 7:00pm. Tickets £15.00. + £1.50. bf, available from: www.gigantic.com.
Sat 05: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Bright Street Big Band @ Washington Arts Centre. From 7:00pm. £12.00. Bright Street Big Band on stage at 7:30pm, preceded at 7:00pm by a swing dance taster session.
Sat 05: J.A.M. String Collective + Tara Cunningham + The Flame @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Sat 05: Heavy Drunk @ Anarchy Brewery, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.00. + £1.50. bf. ‘Mississippi Delta Blues Experience’ feat. Heavy Drunk, Watermelon Slim & Leonardo Giuliani.
Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Night @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. Nicols, Dalling ao. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 05: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Swarland Village Hall NE65 9JG. 8:00pm. £12.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm (12:30pm doors). £7.50.
Sun 06: Luis Verde Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 06: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: Catriona Bourne Quartet + Heather Ferrier + Emma Johson’s Gravy Boat @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & The Globe.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30-8:30pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Monday, February 07, 2011

NEJC & Friends Beerdorado Tour - Saturday 5th Feb

Andy Champion (twin-bell trumpet) ; Matty Bell (band leader) ; Graham 'Deano' Patrick (5-chord guitar) ; Pete Bradshaw (limitless chord guitar) ; Richard Brown (various finger glasses) ; Adrian Tilbrook (shutter percussion) ; Mark Williams (pyrotechnic schplinger) ; Scott - 'Geordie Dad' - Gilby (rusty lager can) ; Michael Gilby (vocals) ; Robert Laing (sting bass) ; Mick Champion (jumbo fret bass) ; David 'Met' Maroniuk (vocals) ; George Milburn (pre-tensioned bows) ; Noel Dennis (flugelhorn). Andy Champion's best man Matty Bell should be congratulated for putting together this fantastic tour at such short notice - Beerdorados waiting for a train! This Saturday, 14 of the region's top musicians and vocalists played to packed houses in:Leeds, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Stalybridge and York.
With a completely unrehearsed playlist, pulled out of the hat only by the constant attention of prestidigitator and bandleader Matty, this was so-called free improv jazz at its best.
With his early doors solo on the train to Leeds, Mark was already in fine form with his own composition, Where's the Beer Trolley?! with bursts of breathy brilliance into an empty Strongbow can - Schpling!!!! (for chord anoraks, that's the famous James Bond theme chord.) Taking up the can theme, like the sympathetic improviser that he is, Scott Gilby took the lead as his track, Geordie Dad, swayed off down the carriage aisle with that poignant lyric, "Y'aalreet pet!" getting the most out of a six-pack of rusty McEwan's Export cans - nice! Then, with brother Michael's cool rendering of He ain't Heavy, but He's Not MY Brother Either! the audience was already getting suitably agitated! Bass (not draught) backing from Robert Laing left us all amazed as his Sting Intro burst away from any constrictive mention of dots or staves - completely fretless in the Oddfellows Arms.
As the band reformed in a Leeds bar, it was an opportunity for the North Yorks contingent to blow their vapours into the ethereal fug. Graham/Deano set off with such an imaginative cocktail of chordal brilliance based on his now famous '5-chord' Method soon joined by Pete Bradshaw with the best deconstructed version of Pinball Wizard ever heard, also thanks to his very own 7sus4 Insistence - brilliant! Adrian's percussive Shutter Release was so subtly executed that he's already planning his own imminent lighter CAM'RA tour! Richard Brown's distinctive fingering (see photo) on half-full straight glass was the finest cameo roll on any drums I ever heard before. After Andy's brother's inspired bass solo on his Jumbo Frets, nobody was in any doubt of that strong family music gene - although Mick did seem to cast doubt on common fatherhood - read into that what you like! Meanwhile Dave Maronuik startled us all with his cool rendering of Bless Their Cotton Socks - Little Tinkers! and got us in the mood for the next stage - "You should all be on it!" they cried, and cried, and cried!! Ending up in York for an improv banquet fit for a lop, Andy led the band with his Da Vinci's Last Supper like a true messiah, reaching for various pre-tensioned bows from yours truly's bottomless quiver - or was it quivering bottom - we'll never know! That reminds me however of a Samurai Sword Tail , which is not a fish! Sadly Noel Dennis couldn't make it to this gig - lucky bugger! There's a saying in free-improv circles that nobody dares utter, in fear of being called repetitious/pretentious/predictable* (delete as appropriate) - I'll whisper it to you later! An 11 hour performance that beggars description - a prenuptial so restrained and yet charged with that Van der Graaf generational static which could spark anytime! We all wish that Z-A will find their continually blooming way in North Shields on Thursday.
Photos. George M

1 comment :

Lance said...

Thanks for that succinct report George - Hello and OK will be livid that we scooped them!

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