Total Pageviews

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.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Relaxin’ with Saxophonics on Buster Keaton’s Boat. January 24

Saxophonics: Keith Robinson (alto & soprano saxophones), Steve Summers (alto & tenor saxophones), Graeme Wilson (tenor saxophone) & Niall Armstrong (baritone saxophone)
(Review by Russell)
Saxophonics at the Jazz Café. The dedicated few up front, the chattering classes at the back. Intoxicated or cloth-eared, it is difficult to understand how anyone can’t sit with rapt attention when Saxophonics take to the stand. A pad of originals, classic numbers arranged and in some cases painstakingly transcribed, the Tyneside based saxophone quartet are up there with the best of them. New York to Camarillo to Blyth to the wine bar, Saxophonics traverse the chamber jazz globe reaching for the stars (make that the moon). Small in number, the sound is often that of a roaring large ensemble.
Tenor man Graeme Wilson’s Street of Furs opened the show, as it does on the quartet’s recently released CD The River Flows at Night. Four musicians engaged in musical conversation; convivial consensus, a joke, laughter, a discordant disagreement (amicably resolved), a point well made. The interaction is as tight as could be; sight-readers all, a knowing cue, a telepathic understanding. On more than one occasion one or more of the ensemble took a step back in admiration of their band mates’ solo flights. A new Niall Armstrong tune - Go Forth - sounded good, let’s hear it again. Wilson’s Damfino is one to hear again and again. Check out Brass Jaw’s recording of the tune, a tune to stand the test of time.
The River Flows at Night took it down, late night. Mike Mower’s charts appeal to the quartet allowing Keith Robinson’s incisive soprano to strike out and again on Armstrong’s Accidental Death. Wilson’s Stranded at the Wine Bar evoked that sense of dread - being in the wrong place, wearily accepting of the fact, hoping something (someone?) will turn up. Relaxin’ at Camarillo,  A Night in Tunisia, The New Wallaw (aka The New Wetherspoon’s!) - three fantastic tunes. More please! Bobby Watson? Yes, please! Oh. yes…Come Fly with Me. What more could one ask?
Keith Robinson alluded to the absence of a rhythm section (the Jazz Café is a little cramped). The bass player must have been hiding around the corner. Nope. The quartet’s internal rhythm section - Niall Armstrong - achieved super human feats. It was all down to Armstrong and relief rhythm maker Wilson. The altoists - Robinson and Steve Summers – soared, reaching for the stars. It was some journey. Buster Keaton’s boat? Damfino was the name, apparently.               
Russell.                    

No comments :

Blog Archive