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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

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

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.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Stan Tracey Quartet @ The Sage. Dec.19.

Stan Tracey (piano), Simon Allen (alto & tenor saxophones), Andy Cleyndert (double bass) & Clark Tracey (drums) + Ben Tracey (narration)
Reviewing Sunday's storming session at the Bridge Hotel, Bebop Spoken Here's Main Man - LL - suggested that Stan Tracey would have to play like he's never played before at The Sage the following night to win the accolade of 'Gig of the Year'. LL said all bets were off. Well, he should have put his money on Stan the Man. This was gig of the year!
A good turn-out in Hall Two greeted the Great Man and his Merry Men. Tracey introduced the band and in so doing said he would leave the stage temporarily during the first number not because of his bladder rather his memory - he had left his sheet music back stage! The first tune - Triple Celebration - most recently recorded on the apposite CD Senior Moment was but one of many gems mined from the Tracey back catalogue during the first set. Rocky Mount followed, then Duffy's Circus. The quartet's standard of musicianship could not be bettered. The tunes swung mightily, Simon Allen played great tenor then even better alto. Hearing Andy Cleyndert again served as a reminder of just how good a player he is.
Clark Tracey and Cleyndert have been the rhythm section for years and years and it showed; smiles, a nod of approval, the appreciation mutual. Tracey Snr played more piano on this gig than in a long time. He was in Monk mode, right foot tapping out the rhythm at a rate of knots. What a first set!
Stan's grandson Ben Tracey joined the quartet for the second set as narrator of Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas. This jazz suite, the first music Tracey had written in years, recalled Under Milk Wood. Comparisons were inevitable and perhaps against expectation any such comparisons were most favourable. Ben Tracey, at twenty two years of age, is a star in the making. He cut a figure right out of PG Wodehouse or perhaps that of a young Stephen Fry. One could imagine him as an intern working under the tutelage of Ian Hislop in the office of Private Eye. His delivery of Thomas' words was simply immaculate. Words and music integrated wonderfully; Allen opted to play alto throughout the piece, Cleyndert laid down one of the great solos of all time (not for the first time) and Tracey Jnr (that's drummer Clark) played like he knows he's good (and he is).
The year has brought us many fantastic gigs here in the north east. Stan Tracey at The Sage topped the lot. Stan Tracey celebrates his birthday next week - Friday 30th - in concert in Umbria, Italy. How good is that?
Russell 

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