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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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Training @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 2:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘A workshop for musical improvisers’. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Wylam Village Institute, Church Road, Wylam NE41 8AP. Doors 7:00pm. Tickets £15.00. + £1.50. bf, available from: www.gigantic.com.
Sat 05: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Bright Street Big Band @ Washington Arts Centre. From 7:00pm. £12.00. Bright Street Big Band on stage at 7:30pm, preceded at 7:00pm by a swing dance taster session.
Sat 05: J.A.M. String Collective + Tara Cunningham + The Flame @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Sat 05: Heavy Drunk @ Anarchy Brewery, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.00. + £1.50. bf. ‘Mississippi Delta Blues Experience’ feat. Heavy Drunk, Watermelon Slim & Leonardo Giuliani.
Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Night @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. Nicols, Dalling ao. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 05: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Swarland Village Hall NE65 9JG. 8:00pm. £12.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm (12:30pm doors). £7.50.
Sun 06: Luis Verde Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 06: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: Catriona Bourne Quartet + Heather Ferrier + Emma Johson’s Gravy Boat @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & The Globe.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30-8:30pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Fri 11: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: The Jazz Quartet + Stratosphonic @ Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £15.00. A Rotary Club of Hexham event. The Jazz Quartet (Jude Murphy & co), Stratosphonic (blues/rock).
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Monday, November 04, 2013

Jim Mullen Organ Trio @ Sage Gateshead. November 2

Jim Mullen (guitar), Pete Whittaker (organ) & Matt Skelton (drums)
(Review by Russell).
Jim Mullen arrived on a rain-swept Tyneside to lead an afternoon workshop (the self effacing Glaswegian dismissed the term ‘masterclass’) and prior to his evening concert performance, chat with Tom Kerstens, Artisitc Director of the North East Guitar Festival at Sage Gateshead. The sparsely populated Northern Rock Foundation Hall gave a warm welcome to one of Britain’s great jazz guitarists (a frequent poll winner down the years, yet deserving of greater recognition – a musician’s musician perhaps).
Mullen spoke about his early years – there was no one to tell him not to adopt the technique he did – and his work in rock bands (Marshall stacks behind him) before heading to London to make a go of it on the jazz scene.
He recalled fondly the late Dick Morrissey and his subsequent list of credits reads like a who’s who of the international scene – the Average White Band, Tam White, Mose Allison, Jimmy Witherspoon, Claire Martin. In the intimate space at Sage Gateshead gone were the banks of amplifiers. These days said Mullen, I’m happy to take my little amp on the bus. Having put his career to date in context, the trio began with a tune, renamed by the Alzheimer’s Society, said Mullen…I Don’t Remember You. This was Blue Note organ trio heaven. Mullen’s speed of light thumb movement (no plectrum) beggared belief as drummer Matt Skelton swung like there was no tomorrow.  Pete Whittaker reunited with Mullen as a late dep on the gig and it was as though he had been in the band for years. His Crumar Mojo and customised Leslie set-up did the job. Less cumbersome than the B3 but just as effective.
Mullen dipped into his mental note book of quotes and liberally peppered them throughout Bruno Martino’s Estate (You and the Night and the Music one of many). I Fall in Love Too Easily (highlighting Skelton’s superlative brush work) and Wes Montgomery’s transcription of The End of a Love Affair won Whittaker due applause. The interval had the geeks looking intently at the on stage hardware – Mullen’s Aura guitar with sound hole covers (presumably to lessen feedback) and one punter expressed disappointment at Whittaker’s non-B3 kit. No pleasing some people. Try lugging that up three flights of stairs to your next pub gig and the next!
Earth, Wind and Fire’s After the Love Has Gone – something of a surprise choice – opened the second set. Mullen said Let’s see if we can make some jazz of it. They did, of course. Mullen, something of a movie buff, suggested they play Invitation – Whittaker and Skelton needed no second invitation. Can these guys play anything? I guess they can!  Mullen’s glorious political incorrectness resurfaced with I Don’t Remember. At the age of sixty seven he said he was beginning to forget things. For the record it was, of course, a great take on Irving Berlin’s Remember. 
Ballads featured in the set list, notably When Sunny Gets Blue. Lovely bluesy guitar from Mullen. The evening concluded with a brain teaser as Mullen announced: Your starter for ten. The trio ripped through the theme to the television quiz show University Challenge with countless quotes – all recognisable, all so fleeting, impossible to recall. At the end Mullen laughed. How many did you get? He asked.              
Russell.

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