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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 2023.

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...

Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

December

Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 04: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ People’s Kitchen, Bath Lane, Newcastle. From 5:30pm. On-street gig supporting the work of the People’s Kitchen charity. Wrap up warm! Donate!
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio w Lindsay Hannon @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Mon 04: Durham University Jazz Orchestra + Durham University Big Band @ Durham Castle DH1 3RW. 8:30pm. £6.00.; £5.00. concs; £4.00. DSM. ‘Jazzy Christmas’.

Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ All Saints Church, Cleadon. 7:00pm. Concert in the church hall. BYOB.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Sid White. The best free show in town!

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Free. Note later start time, concert performance (open to the public).
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay, Newcastle. 12 noon - 4:00pm. £26.00 (inc 3-course meal in in St Mary's Lighthouse Suite). SOLD OUT!
Thu 07: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 07: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.Donations. Feat. Mark Sanders. CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00. Downstairs.
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Woodland Village Hall, Bishop Auckland. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Fri 08: Sleep Suppressor + Redwell @ Head of Steam, Neville St., Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv); £5.00. student.
Fri 08: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert's Church, Shadforth, Co. Durham.
Fri 08: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £8.00.

Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Abbie Finn Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoe Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Funk Soul Sista @ Stack, Seaburn. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Beth Clarke @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Whittingham Memorial Institute, Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00., £10.00.
Sun 10: Tele-Port @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Zhenya Strigalev.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Matt Roberts Quintet @ The Forum, Darlington. June 9, 2013

Matt Roberts (trumpet), Matt Anderson (tenor saxophone), Declan Forde (keyboards), Sam Vicary (double bass) & Sam Gardner (drums)
(Review by Russell)
Matt Roberts Quintet pay tribute to the great…Lee Morgan. So said the flyer around the Forum Music Centre. The bar was packed, the main hall would soon be similarly crowded to welcome home trumpeter Matt Roberts. A Darlington lad made good, Roberts served his apprenticeship in the ranks of the County Durham schools’ big bands, moved on to further his studies in Leeds, then London and here on home turf he was to be given a hero’s welcome. His quintet boasted some familiar names and faces from the Leeds scene - Matt’s frontline partner and namesake tenor saxophonist Matt Anderson, the two Sams - Vicary (double bass) and Gardner (drums) - and recent Leeds College of Music graduate, pianist Declan Forde.
Roberts chose numbers from classic Lee Morgan sides and one or two from the American’s work as a sideman. The sound - balance and levels - couldn’t have been better and the quintet’s collective cool admirable. Secure in technique, the pad worked on in the woodshed, these guys were Johnny Cool (x5). The Cooker, Tom Cat, Expoobident and The Sidewinder were just some of Morgan’s celebrated recordings dipped into during two fantastic sets.
The Johnny Cool feel, a blues undercurrent and a cookin’ rhythm section - the two Sams swinging it all night long - set it up for Matt and Matt. They took full advantage and traded superb solos one after another. If you believe in a jazz heaven then this was surely it. Lover Man stood out in a stand out first set (Roberts’ teased-notes intro hitching a ride on Vicary’s walking bass line) with considered solo piano from the prodigiously talented Forde. Moment’s Notice from Coltrane’s Blue Train registered as another highlight. Heaven, paradise, call it what you will, the first set alone made the gig a runaway contender for this week’s Gig of the Year!
An interval pint of White Boar Bitter, a slice of cake (all proceeds to the tour fund for July’s trip to Belgium by the County Durham Youth Big Band and Little Big Band), a strip of raffle tickets, a natter with one or two jazz nerds - sorry, aficionados - and it was time to resume our place in the standing-room-only hall for the second set.
Tom Cat from the eponymous album reintroduced Matt (trumpet) then Matt (tenor), Forde sketched Monk then took evasive action to get out of the way of Gardner’s instantaneous rat-a-tat-tat rim shot response (touché!). Roberts threw down the gauntlet opting to play Twice Around (another from Tom Cat). The boys were up for it. Cookin’ or what? Wow!!! Just in Time from Expoobident took it down featuring Harmon Roberts then yet more wonderful tenor from Anderson.
The full house demanded more. The Forum Jazz Club has worked hard to win an audience. Roberts expressed his thanks to all concerned; the organisers (the experienced tutors and the young musicians on door duties, raffle ticket sales and sundry other tasks), the audience and his friends sharing the stand with him. Sidewinder wound it up. Heaven, I’m in (jazz) heaven…              

Russell.        

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