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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

15867 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 874 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (Sept. 25).

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, June 02, 2012

Gavin Lee’s 7th Street Dixieland Band: Jazz @ the Fell - Friday June 1.

(Review by Russell - Photos by Oliver Soden).
Gavin Lee (clarinet), Jim McBriarty (alto saxophone & vocals), Brian Chester (piano), Phil Smith (double bass), Fred Thompson (drums & vocals) & Beth Miller (vocals)
Gateshead Royal British Legion Club on Coatsworth Road, home to Jazz at the Fell, had, for some reason, made an effort to be festive. A hand-drawn poster announced a party for all the family would be held on Monday. A tired-looking string of flags signalled something – perhaps indifference.
The jazz would surely be anything but indifferent. Clarinetist Gavin Lee’s 7th Street Dixieland Band straddles the Mason-Dixon Line in the world of jazz centred around Jazz Age Chicago with occasional sorties south. George Gershwin made the first contribution to the party; Somebody Loves Me featured the first of the vocalists – Jim McBriarty. Fred Thompson sang You Can Depend on Me (you sure can) with solo efforts from McBriarty (alto) and Lee (clarinet). Beth Miller came up from the delta – Teesside Delta – to sing with the band. A bright and breezy On the Sunny Side of the Street made it easy to warm to Miller’s assured low-register delivery. My Funny Valentine, ostensibly an incongruous selection, worked well; Miller impressed, so too Lee, given that the clarinetist had never before played the tune. The outstanding number of the night came courtesy of drummer and sweet-toned vocalist Fred Thompson. Pianist Brian Chester (on top of the material all night) offered the one chord and Thompson sang the verse from Stardust unaccompanied. The band joined him and it was brushes all the way from Thompson. You know how it is – hundreds of gigs waiting for that moment…this was it. I don’t know about gig of the year but this was a contender for moment of the year! 
The interval came and went - raffle, domino card, buffet, another Brown Ale (the club doesn’t do real beer) – and Strike Up the Band marshalled a parade of brolly dollies and a hand-knitted red, white and blue number (a ‘jersey’) was sighted. What’s that about getting dressed in the dark? Harold Arlen focused the mind once more – As Long as I Live – and vocalist Miller returned to the stage to sing September in the Rain. That’s who she reminds me of…there is something of Sassy Sarah Vaughan in her lazy, languorous tone and it wasn’t cold, it wasn’t damp, she ain’t but Miller gave us The Lady is a Tramp
This was a good night out, not strictly Dixieland by any means, simply good tunes played by good musicians. Chester, Phil Smith (bass) and Thompson coped admirably with numbers thrown at them by amiable bandleader Lee and the frontline – Lee and McBriarty – rattled-off the solos. Next week get along to Jazz at the Fell to hear the Maine Street Jazzmen.
Russell

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