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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

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.

Thursday, May 02, 2013

MoPoMoSo @ Summerhill Bowling Club. April 29, 2013

(Review by Russell).
Twenty one years and counting. London-based free improv music promoter MoPoMoSo (MOdernismPOstMOdernismSOwhat?) was established in 1991 by John Russell and Chris Burn and by way of celebration a cast of thousands took to the road on a national tour. A Better Noise, Tyneside’s premier promoters of all things improv, usually hole-up in Morden Tower, West Walls, Newcastle or the nearest available telephone box. As hosts of the Newcastle leg of this once in a lifetime tour, the defiantly subversive bunch   looked for somewhere more palatial. A city centre theatre location? An area with significant foot-fall perhaps? No, no, no. A former suburban bowling club in an off-the-beaten-track location…where else? Down the years the Great and the Good have bowled a ball or two on Summerhill’s lauded lawns (WG Grace, no less and Wor Jackie, Newcastle United’s most famous No.9, to name but two). And now, in the year 2013, an undisputed giant of the music walked through the gates. Reeds maestro Evan Parker engaged in quiet conversation, listened to his fellow improvisers as they took to the stage and waited with characteristic patience to make his contribution to the festivities.
The evening began with local improvisers Posset (Joe Murray) and Mariam Rezaei (turntable). Murray has been a familiar face on the scene for a number of years developing a found sound landscape utelising low-fi tapes and voice. Turntablist Rezaei, an occasional collaborator, spun a web of tungsten, snaring Murray and audience in an all too short set. Brevity was of the essence as an ever-changing roster kept to a tight schedule.
The duo of Kay Grant (voice) and clarinetist Alex Ward have developed a highly sophisticated set of improvisations. Grant, from the New York scene, now resident in London, ignited, then, in turn, reacted to Ward’s virtuosic clarinet playing. ‘Telepathic’ doesn’t tell half the story. Seemingly impossible reaction times to each other’s creative excursions - explosive, tangential - rewarded the listener time and again. This was a superb set.
On paper the Alison Blunt Trio looked the pick. Violinist Blunt’s string trio - Benedict Taylor (viola), David Leahy (double bass) - have worked together for three or four years and all three hold down coveted  chairs in the London Improvisers Orchestra. The trio began as improvisers so often do - somewhere, out there, not at the beginning, middle or end, just ‘there’. Ornette Coleman has been doing it for years and this set was nothing short of sensational. The pin-drop, attentive audience listened rapt to a slow movement of exquisite beauty. Then an inattentive member of the bar staff dropped a pint glass shattering the near-silence. This ‘happening’ triggered the most remarkable (and memorable) of reactions; in a nano second all three musicians reacted to the involuntary interruption with a furious eruption of sustained full-on ‘out’ playing. Brilliant! What a set!
The maverick Pat Thomas (piano, keyboards, electronics) arrived in Newcastle with his electronic box of tricks (mini keyboard attached) but no piano. No matter, the man is a genius and he played a blinder. Big beats, cartoon capers and the most dazzling ‘keyboard’ work this side of Art Tatum/Thelonious Monk/Cecil Taylor  had the crowd baying for more - and they got it!
Top of the bill - House Full of Floors - couldn’t go wrong. We were there for Evan. Parker (tenor), John Russell (guitar) and John Edwards (double bass) could not have been more comfortable in one another’s company. Parker, eyes shut tight (sounds familiar!), listened to Russell’s idiosyncratic inventions then sign-posted new directions as Edwards’ physical workout exercised the trio without any concessions to the elder statesmen. A memorable night in Summerhill.  .        
Russell.                                     

2 comments :

Paul Kelly said...

Greetings from the phone box - are there any still in use.
Mopomoso was amazing, great players making exciting music with no hold barred. And a good review. We should do this again!
And huge thanks to Sound and Music and tour producer Alice Eldridge for making it happen.
Paul

diane jones said...

You'll need to find a phone box then Paul since I understand that there will be no future better noises at the Tower.

Excellent review Of a brilliant evening Russell, and yes please do do it again Paul...

diane

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