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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

16051 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1058 of them this year alone and, so far, 12 this month (Dec. 6).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Alan Law, Paul Grainger & Abbie Finn @ Darlington Market, Market Square, Darlington. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘Christmas Market’ outdoor gig. Wrap up warm!
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.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Interim Final Recitals @ Newcastle University. Details TBC.

Tue 12: Stu Collingwood Organ Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £10.00.

Wed 13: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 13: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 13: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Wed 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Hot Fingers @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 14: After Hours Student Jazz Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. . Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 14: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Mo Scott ‘Little Mo’s Festive Appearance’ @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Tees Hot Club w. Kevin Eland, Josh Bentham, Garry Hadfield, Adrian Beadnell @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 15: Paul Edis @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 15: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 15: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: Paul Skerritt @ Black Horse Inn, Crook. From 7:00pm.
Fri 15: Paul Edis: A Jazzy Christmas @ St Cuhtbert's Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00. SOLD OUT! Waiting list open.
Fri 15: Zoë Gilby Trio @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £12.00. POSTPONED!
Fri 15: Strictly Smokin' Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. First night of two.
Fri 15: Darlington Big Band @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £10.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 15: Baghdaddies @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £14.00.; £10.00.

Sat 16: Paul Edis: A Jazzy Christmas @ Sage Gateshead. 2:00pm. A Jazzy Christmas + Jambone.
Sat 16: Porritt & Barrett & Friends Xmas Special @ Cullercoats Watch House. 7:00pm. £4.00.
Sat 16: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 16: Red Kites Jazz Band @ The Staithes Café, Gateshead. 7:00pm--9:00pm.
Sat 16: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Ellingham Village Hall, Chathill. 7:30pm. £12.00., £8.00.
Sat 16: Paul Edis: A Jazzy Christmas @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.
Sat 16: Strictly Smokin' Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Second night of two.

Monday, April 07, 2014

GIJF Day Three. In the Spirit of Duke - Jacqui Dankworth, and Charlie Wood, SNJO. April 6

Jacqui Dankworth (vcl); Charlie Wood (vcl/pno).
SNJO: Tommy Smith, Martin Kershaw, Ru Pattison, Conrad Wisznewski, Allon Beauvoisin (reeds); Tom Walsh, Tom MacNiven, Lorne Cowieson, Cameron Jay (tpts); Phil O'Malley, Chris Grieve, Michael Owers (tmbs); Brian Kellock (pno); Calum Gourley; Alyn Cosker (dms).
Alyn Shipton had a pre-concert on-stage talk with Tommy Smith which provided an informative introduction as to what was to come. Shipton is an expert interviewer and Smith a fluent subject. It was excellent.
In The Spirit of Duke had been performed at Durham's Gala Theatre last year and it was very good then. Would it stand up to a second hearing? Would the band be as good without Ryan Quigley?
The answer to both questions was an emphatic yes.
To start at the end - Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue. The number that set the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival alight and revitalised Ellington's career. Originally Paul Gonsalves blew 27 choruses but tonight surely Tommy Smith played many more! He swung like no tenorman I've ever heard swing. Bar after bar, phrase after phrase, chorus after chorus, the momentum was there he was in overdrive, man and instrument as one. The cows had long come home but Smith was over the hills and faraway. The applause was tumultuous this had been special and it wasn't over yet. Tom Walsh came down front for the Cat Anderson screamers at the end and I swear the roof of Sage Gateshead ended up somewhere over the rainbow! Ryan who...?
Earlier we'd heard a well-tempered mix of Ellingtonia. The blend of the saxes on Le Sucrier Velours - sweet without being sugary, Ru Pattison's alto - how can one so young get the sound and feel of Johnny Hodges? - Brian Kellock on piano, Alyn Cosker's drumming, everybody, the plaudits number beyond infinity.
The concert had opened with a duo set from Jacqui Dankworth and husband Charlie Wood. Jacqui I knew was in good voice from the afternoon performance but Charlie Wood was a new name to me.
The duo gelled and the songwriting side of Duke has rarely been bettered. Particularly interesting was the merging of Solitude and Take the A Train. Wood's vocal bass lines to In a Mellow Tone were also effective.
Next year's Festival is pencilled in for April 10/11/12.
Can't wait! However, before then, down the road at Darlington Forum, we have the Darlington Jazz Festival on April 26/27
Lance.

2 comments :

Hugh said...

"Facile" subject - did you mean that?

Lance said...

Fluent is better! Thank you for pointing that out - by that stage I was was quite facile myself!

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