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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!

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

17372 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 656 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (Sept. 17).

From This Moment On ...

September

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.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 1:00-2:45pm. Free.
Sat 21: Vieux Carré Hot Four @ The Beehive, Hartley Lane, Earsdon Whitley Bay NE25 0SZ. 4:30pm-6:30pm.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Jude Murphy & Alan Law @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free.
Sun 22: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Richard Herdman @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: Remy CB Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Remi, 2024 Newcastle Uni graduate, superb soul/blues voice!

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Paul Booth with the Paul Edis Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert! SOLD OUT!

Tue 24: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv. from Tully’s of Rothbury). Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 24: Sarah Gillespie @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £16.50. Duo performance with Chris Montague.

Monday, September 10, 2012

The Voice of the North Jazz Orchestra @ The Sage, Sunday Sept. 9

John Warren (cond./comp./arr.); Julian Siegel (clt/sop/ten/cont bs clt); Graham Hardy, Sean Eland, John Dunn, Greg Nicholas (tpts); Chris Hibbard, Alex Leathard, Kieran Parnaby, Eddie Bellis (tmb); Rod Mason, Andy Bennett, Graeme Wilson, Sue Ferris, Niall Armstrong (reeds); Stu Collingwood (pno); Mark Williams (gtr); Andy Champion (bs/bs gtr); Adrian Tilbrook (dms).
(Review by Lance.)
Friday, I vote for the VOTNJO in the Big Band section of the British Jazz Awards, Sunday, the grim reality that this was to be their final concert - at least under John Warren - sinks in. So perhaps we should all vote for them in appreciation of what they have achieved over the past 15/16 years.
The music is complex - a jazz version of say Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique - but it's also accessible to all but the most tunnelled visionaires.
After a few words from Paul Bream of co-promoters JNE, John Warren introduces the evening's guest, Julian Siegel, and the band, already under starters orders are off and into The New One Two. A Warren composition  originally written for the John Surman Brass Project.
It's a dissonant, almost atonal, piece that features Siegel on soprano, Dunn on trumpet and Wilson on tenor. There's also a relaxed, out of tempo, interlude spotlighting bass and drums. An auspicious start that takes up  15 minutes, maybe more, of the first set which is about par.
Wise Child, by Siegel, is dedicated to Wayne Shorter and the composer plays some quite heroic tenor. Bennett, Williams also have a bite at the cherry before a Tilbrook drum excursion brings the piece to it's logical conclusion.
Monk's Ruby My Dear - a Warren arrangement -  features Collingwood's sensitive introduction and sets the sultry mood. The sax section's co-ordination impresses and for a while the band is actually swinging.
The Missing Link - the two Grahams (well Graeme and Graham actually) are both heard to advantage in a piece as quirky as the title.
The set closes with a latin based number the title of which escapes me - more excellent work by Collingwood.
After adjourning to the bar and doing the social circuit it was back to business. This band really is incredible, handling some of the most intricate parts ever scored with apparent ease. The sections gel even though they are often seemingly in conflict albeit carefully contrived conflict which isn't conflict at all!
Mark Williams does some guitar shredding with such intensity it's a wonder the lights don't dim whilst on Aliteration Addict Niall Armstrong takes a giant step forward out of the section for a baritone solo that could arguably be put forward as the best blast of the night.
De Je Vu has Siegel doing some delicate work on Contra Bass Clarinet in tandem with one of the trombones.
As we approach the home straight Rod Mason does some paint-stripping and Sue Ferris, that most lyrical lady, adds the gloss.
It's been quite a night tinged with the sad thought we may ne'er see their like again..
I'm pleased the VOTNJO drew a reasonable crowd - a band this size could quite easily have outnumbered the audience! fortunately this wasn't the case unlike in the Central Bar where I called in for a pre number 27 (bus) pint. Here the bar staff did out number the customers - all three of us!
Lance.
PS: If you decide to vote for the band in the awards click here.

1 comment :

Unknown said...

This was the first (and I hope not the last) time I had been to a VOTNJO gig.
Paul Bream says they're good. Lance Liddle says they're good. But neither had prepared me for the intense joy of their complex sensitive repetoire. Fabulous arrangements, superb musicianship.

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