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Bebop Spoken There

Ambrose Akinmusire: “ I am certainly always aware of what the masses are doing. And when I see too many people going one way, I'm going another way - even when I don't know what's over that way". DownBeat, March, 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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Castillo Neuvo Trio + Conor Emery & His ‘Bones Band @ The Grove, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00. (£7.00. student).
Thu 21: Remi Banklyn + Chris Corcoran Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.50. Chicago blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime piano.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Nauta + Remy CB + Last Orders @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). Free.
Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 22: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 23: Jambone @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:30pm. Free (ticketed). End of term performance in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 23: Red Kites Jazz @ Rowlands Gill Community Centre NE39 1JB. 7:00pm. Tickets: £12.00. (gibsidecommunityfarm@gmail.com). A ‘Build a Barn’ fundraiser. BYOB, tea/coffee available.
Sat 23: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00. + bf (book in person at venue - no booking fee!). Featuring pianist Martin Litton.
Sat 23: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 24: Luis Verde @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Verde (alto sax); Joe Steels (guitar); John Pope (double bass); John Hirst (drums). Alto sax brilliance!
Sun 24: Elsie Franklin @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Country blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Sun 24: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Las Vegas Live with the Rat Pack @ The Forum, Billingham.
Sun 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Otterburn Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sun 24: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Note start time - 7:00pm.
Sun 24: Bold Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

Urgent Warning For Jazzers! - Folk Music Alert

(By Ann Alex).
Jazzers should be warned that there’s lots of folk music on at Sage Gateshead today (Saturday June 7) as it’s the 24 Hours-of-Folk, a world record attempt folk session, from 10am Saturday morning until 10am on Sunday.  It starts with the Unthanks and a student band, The Teacups, and other folkies eg myself, have been sponsored to help out so that the music is continuous.  Many well known folk musicians will be performing, such as Alistair Anderson, and Taffy Thomas, who is a storyteller.  The aim is to raise money for Sage Gateshead, which is suffering from funding cutbacks.
The Jazz Coop workshop is also at Sage Gateshead during Saturday afternoon (The theme is rhythm, with Judith Thompson and Steve Glendinning) so I hope the 2 groups don’t meet!  Lance says he’s giving the folk a miss – why am I not surprised?
But seriously, I know there are many jazzers like myself with a foot, or rather an instrument, in both camps and I think it’s going to be a great day all round.  Saturday is the culmination of a really good week of folk, as there have been free concerts Monday-Thursday, when the Folk and Traditional Music Degree students were being assessed. It’s worth keeping an ear open at these concerts, as local jazz musicians such as Simon Stephenson and Rob Heron both emerged via this degree.  This year there weren’t many obvious jazz elements, but we were treated to wonderful women singers, Portuguese piping, lots of fiddles and guitars, and more use of drum kits than you’d expect.  The final performance on Friday was by someone on highland pipes, not my favourite instrument, but it was actually tremendous, with 2 highland pipers in spine-tingling harmony and also a piece with highland pipes and double bass, which really worked well.  I kid you not.
It’s all music, folks.
Anne Alex.

4 comments :

Russell said...

I left the Jazz Café on a high after a fantastic gig featuring Hutton, Champion and Carnegie. I wandered over to GOTH (Gateshead Old Town Hall) to see how the marathon was going. About fifty people in round midnight. A bloke in a waistcoat, bow tie etc was telling a story about a bloke who sawed off his feet. A piper, Paul Knox, piped-up intermittently. The interminable story - I was losing the will to live - came to an end. Cue two female singers, audience participation at the chorus, folkie foot-stomping. At around ten minutes to one I realised why I love jazz as much as I do and went off into the night.

Ann Alex said...

Russell,
I left the Saturday Jazz Workshop on a high after studying 'Bernie's Tune' and I left the 24 hours of Folk on a high just before you arrived! I had 2 highs with the added bonus that the 24 hours of folk had raised funds for Sage Gateshead, so that both folk and jazz can continue. Long may both go on!
Maybe you didn't listen to the storytelling closely enough. The nearest comparison that many people would remember is the storytelling of Dave Allen the comedian. Storytelling is used in schools now to teach children how to deal with bullying and abuse. Ann Alex

Roly said...

I must admit up to a few years ago I took little interest in 'folk music' apart from the local dialect songs which I've liked going back to Alex Glasgow & Co. My loss! Neil Harland played me some of Chris Stout's music - wonderful stuff and very sophisticated (complex time signatures no problem for one small example) - swings like the clappers, gorgeous lyrical melodies and so on. I realised I was maybe missing out on something. I went to see Fiddlers Bid at Berwick Maltings a while back - absolutely memorable! I love The Unthanks music - their CD 'Songs of the Shipyards' is one of the most moving I've ever heard - wonderful story telling and cohesive from start to finish. Talk about compelling. Its very moving and I've listened to it over and over again. I've commented before about June Tabor. Check out Eliza Carthy too. Went to a Bellowhead Sage concert about two years back. Everyone was on their feet. Fantastic live act. Just been checking out Ian Carr (the guitarist) and Simon Thoumire on Iain's very amusing website - amazing stuff. Quite a few great jazz players comfortably cross over to contemporary folk and mix things up too. Graeme Stephen, Fraser Fifield, Chris Stout, Huw Warren, Iain Ballamy to name just a few. Folk music is just another genre - there's great, good and not so good - just like jazz. PS. What about opera?
Roly

JC said...

While I love jazz and have been to many great jazz gigs, I've also been to a few where the option of having a foot sawed off might have seemed a tempting alternative. But I love folk and traditional music as well and ten days ago I was at an epic folk concert at the Sage as part of three-day festival curated by the current folk band of the moment, Lau. They had asked the Unthanks to bring together some of the groups who had influenced them. So on stage were the Unthanks who include the two singers, a piano, two violins, a cello and an electric bass; a three-man a capella group called the Voice Squad; and the Irish fiddle player, Martin Hayes and his guitar playing sidekick, Dennis Cahill. The first piece was a song 'Sea coal' written by a 14 year old from Hartlepool and featured the three groups together - amazing. The groups also played separately and I would defy lovers of whatever kind of specific music not to be moved by the Voice Squad's unaccompanied version of 'I am Stretched on Your Grave'.
Then Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill's 15 minute improvisation on a traditional Irish tune was a staggering tour de force. Folk? Jazz? When they're good, they're great.
PS. But I have to say I draw the line at opera....
JC

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