Total Pageviews

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

Fri 04: Satoko Fujii @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 04: Amirtha Kidambi w. Manon McCoy @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. £8.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. Gem Arts, JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Ziv Taubenfeld/Olie Brice/Kresten Osgood + Andy Champion + Izumi Kimura & Gerry
Hemingway @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: As I Sing & Breathe @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘Songs & Improvisations’ - Nicols, Dalling & guests.
Fri 04: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 04: John Rowland Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Millstone. December 19

(Review by John Peace).
It was a cold, grey damp Thursday afternoon in South Gosforth when having gotten all my timings wrong for wandering around Majestic wines and meeting up with a friend I found myself with a couple of hours to kill. No problem I thought, just go to the Brandling ( a pub last visited when I was in the 6th form at St Mary's) and have a couple of quiet pints. Well quiet was out the question as the place had a couple of large raucous groups in and there's nothing that makes you feel more like 'johnny no mates' than standing at the bar on your own when everyone else is laughing and the air is filled with loud chatter!
Still all was not lost, there was always the Millstone to try, so I braved the rain and wind and headed there, pushed open the door to be met with the unmistakeable aroma of Christmas dinner and the gentle hubbub of conversation, this will do I thought so a pint of Tyneside Blonde was duly ordered.
Pint in hand I took in the bar, which turned out to be full, all the tables and chairs taken, across in the corner a banner proclaimed 'Vieux Carré Jazzmen'. Aah great I thought some Jazz for the afternoon, maybe some mellow Miles or John Coltrane maybe even a bit Sonny Stitt. An announcement from the band area "will the gentlemen of the orchestra please come and attend to their instruments" Sure enough half a dozen guys made their way forward and the unmistakeable sound of instrument being prepared filled the air. One of them wanders to the microphone, welcomes everyone for coming and duly announces that todays session would start with a song from 1925! Oh god no... not trad jazz a music form I've never liked or appreciated, time to drink up and head for Newcastle and with three quarters of a pint to finish it wasn't going to be a quick escape.
So the band started up, now here was something new, this wasn't the Trad Jazz I'd heard in the past. This was something more melancholic, slower paced and definitely more pleasant on the ear! These guys were/are consummate musicians, playing with some style and a clear love and feeling for this music. The audience were clearly enjoying it too, applauding every solo  and generally getting in to the swing of things. Before I knew it I'd ordered a second pint and was applauding the end of the session. Next to me at the bar was a guy who’d been ‘foot tappin’ along to the tunes, so I turned to him and asked a little about the band, discovering they've been around in one form or another since the fifties and the trumpet player, Fred Rowe was in his mid eighties and the average age was comfortably in the 70's, new found admiration for these guys!
Third pint ordered and time for the second session to start. My old fears returned as the first couple of songs sounded, at least to my ears, that each of them were playing a different tune. But then Minnie The Moocher was introduced as the next song, the only song played that I recognised the title of, being familiar with the Cab Calloway version. Now this one was different and actually had an air of authenticity about it that said "I was here first" and contained enough ho di ho's in it to keep everyone happy as the audience joined in!
Pint no. 4 was duly ordered, this Tyneside Blonde is a lovely pint and goes down easily! The band were coming to the end of their set and finished with a song called Goin' or maybe Comin' home, for me this was the best tune played it had a distinct feel of the Blues to it and so ended the session to appreciative applause from everyone in the audience.
With the 21st century speeding past outside it was time to leave the warmth and comfort of the 1920's behind and get some Christmas shopping done and meet up with my friend. Now if you've ever got a bit time to kill and happen to see the Vieux Carré Jazzmen are playing, do yourself a favour and "come in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down."
Also I’ll be following your blog from now on.
Cheers and Merry Christmas




John Peace

1 comment :

Brian (banjo) Bennett said...

Great review, John! It seems the old jazzers (with more than a little help from the Tyneside Blonde) hooked you then reeled you in. Hope to see you again, but next time introduce yourself and have a word!

Blog Archive