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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

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Fri 13: Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Two pianos, two pianists! SOLD OUT!
Fri 13: Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Dilutey Juice @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.00. adv..
Fri 13: Ray Stubbs R & B All-stars @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Classic blues.

Sat 14: Jeff Barnhart’s Silent Film Fest @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 14: Customs House Big Band w. Ruth Lambert @ St Paul’s Centre, St Paul’s Gardens, Spennymoor DL16 7LR. 7:00pm (6:45pm doors). Tickets £10.00. from the venue or tel: 01388 813404. A ‘BYOB’ event.
Sat 14: Emma Wilson @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00. Acoustic blues.
Sat 14: Rat Pack - Swingin’ at the Sands @ Billingham Forum. 7:30pm.

Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Panharmonia @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Swing Manouche @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: John Hallam with the James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert!

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Jason Isaacs Big Band "Swing Sensations" - City Hall, Newcastle, May 10.

Jason Isaacs (vocal/tenor) + Steve Norman (tenor/vocal); the Fenner Sisters (backing vocals); Dorothy Ellis (vocal); The Ambassadors of Swing.
Darren Irwin (trumpet/MD); Dave Hignett, Mark Webb (trumpets); Don Failey, Dave Brock, Alan Brady (trombones); Sue Ferris, Lewis Watson, Steve Blythe (reeds); Stuart Collingwood (piano); Neil Harland (bass); Rod Sinclair (guitar); Simon Ferry (drums).
(Review by Lance).
The Ambassadors of Swing put us In The Mood for the world's most athletic, on stage, performer - Jason Isaacs. The ten foot tall (or thereabouts) singer bounded on to the stage well inside the Olympic record for bounding on stages and he did it Side Ways!
The Lady is a Tramp was almost choreographed as some latecomers arrived, as if on cue, during the line She loves the theatre but never comes late. And who would come late for a show like this? The Best is Yet to Come and a chorus of Come Fly With me in Geordie (...And if ye cud use sum exotic booze then we'll gan doon to Whitley Bay) followed. Why Don't You Do Right? had our boy blowing tenor as well as singing. Let there be Love, I've Got You Under my Skin ( Nelson Riddle arrangement with the legendary trombone break) and a  belting Cheek to Cheek.
The band were superb, led by by trumpeter Darren Irwin, depping for Mick Donnelly who was on the road with Lisa Stansfield, they filled the, not always acoustically perfect, City Hall with the great big band sound that was once the norm in this much loved building.
Mr Bojangles, the B side of his new single, quite a poignant song put over well. The Fenner Sisters provided the Hi-de-His and Ho-de-Hos (along with the audience) on Minnie the Moocher.
Elvis' American Trilogy, always an emotive piece, preceded Me and my Shadow - a duet with Dorothy Ellis - before Mack the Knife and Bad Bad Leroy Brown brought the set to a close.
This show was just something else! Forget Bublé and the current crop of Rat Packers - Isaacs is the real deal.
Despite being annoyed that the bar staff had disposed of the BSH cards which I'd scattered around the tables and ledges, fortified by a (plastic) glass of Chardonnay, I returned to Row P ready for more goodies.
And goodies they were indeed!
It Don't Mean a Thing - the Fenners looked lovely doing the Do Wah Do Wahs but would have benefited from a tad more volume - Beyond the Sea, For Once in my Life and the A side of the single, Too Marvellous For Words, - you can download it for £1.29!
The band were let loose on Sweet Georgia Brown with Lewis Watson having a good blast, Jason and the Fens returned for That's Life. Jason blew on Jump Jive and then sang Hit The Road Jack. We certainly didn't!
Next guest was Spandau Ballet's saxman Steve Norman - You're Indestructible from the Spandau Ballet Songbook and a stirring sax duel between the two singers - honours even.
Invariably we had My Way and, of course, New York New York.
Start spreading the news the single's out today and it's just Too Marvellous for Words!...
Lance.

4 comments :

Jason Isaacs said...

Thanks for that lance . Very kind words . I know it's not a jazz gig so it's all the kinder of you. Thanks for coming. I love bebop spoken here! Keep up the great work .

Parsons Marketing said...

Echo all you've said here Lance and eloquently pu., Love the Saxman line too, will pass that on to Steve if you'd let me!

Mrs Isaacs said...

Couldn't have put it better myself - and lovely to meet you in person after all these years! You're on the guest list any time! X

Lance said...

By all means pass it on Mr Marketing...

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