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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.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Jumpin’ Hot Club stage @ Summertyne Americana Festival. July 20

(Review by Russell).
The weather forecast for Sunday afternoon at this year’s Americana Festival was so much better than Saturday’s rain-interrupted affair. Noon. A dog day afternoon - hot, humid, an expanse of blue sky over Sage Gateshead. Folding tables and chairs, picnic baskets, rugs, a chuck wagon to feed a Confederate platoon and beer a-plenty to wash it all down.
The pick of the day’s action scheduled at either end of the day suggested a split shift visit to the pub was in the offing for your Bebop Spoken Here correspondent. Fickle Lilly are a busy band gigging around the north east. Making a return visit to Gateshead, their early start (and early finish) enabled them to head north to play a set later in the afternoon at a blues festival in Wooler. 
Fickle Lilly are all about goodtime rock ‘n’ roll. Sheila Robson (vocals) led the five piece band in an energetic, entertaining set. Guitarist Ally Lee engaged in banter with the audience (Performance Square was packed from the off), making clear his love of pies (his ample frame a give-away). Piano, bass and drums (Gordon Hall, Steve Martin and George Waters) laid the foundations on a quick-fire set of tunes including Colin James’ Rocket to the Moon and JD McPherson’s Dimes for Nickels. The band blazed a trail on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Love Struck Baby and Robson sang about a subject few of us knew anything about…When I Get Drunk.
The first of two eagerly anticipated sets featured an appearance by Dan Blues Boy Owen. A Sunday morning four hour drive from Shrewsbury is nothing to a travelling, gigging bluesman. Owen, twenty two years old, is a one man blues band. He brought with him two acoustic guitars, a harmonica and a stomp box (foot beat box). The high bar stool he sat on perhaps made the journey with him. Owen’s amplified stomping was of such precision it is likely the bar stool is akin to a custom made item, integral to his performance. An accomplished guitarist, Owen possesses a fantastic, big blues voice. He used it on Walking Blues, Forget Me When I’m Gone, Little Red Rooster, Willie Nelson’s Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die and a couple of Bob Dylan numbers – Girl From the North Country and to finish his set, Ballad of Hollis Brown. The crowd rose to its feet, affording a standing ovation to the man from Shrewsbury. Dan Owen is a remarkable young musician. If you run a blues club, book him. You won’t regret it.
To end the day on the Jumpin’ Hot Club stage, an end-of-tour gig by Davina and the Vagabonds had a celebratory end-of-term feel to it. Bandleader Davina Sowers couldn’t recall how long the band had been on tour in Europe – clearly it was time for them to head home to America! Her five piece band ripped into two original numbers – Black Cloud and from their latest CD, Sunshine – before the ebullient Sowers pronounced that the show would be a rollercoaster revue of one hundred years of Americana. I’ve Found a New Baby (the brass section hot, hot, hot), Ain’t That a Shame, Bourbon Street Parade, all delivered with street brass pizzazz (Ben Link trombone and Andrew Burns double bass relentless with their Big Easy grooves) . No time to pause for breath – Chuck Berry’s Back to Memphis maintained the unforgiving pace. The members of Sowers’ band could have stepped out of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra’s sections, so good were they. Drummer Connor McCrae Hammergren took it down with a sweet vocal on You’re Just in Love. Daniel Eikmeier took the vocals and a superb trumpet solo on a blazing Shake That Thing. Sowers obliged a request with St Michael Vs the Devil. The highlight of the weekend (in fact a serious contender for performance of the year) heard Sowers sing a spine-tingling I’d Rather Go Blind. Massive vocals, a festival crowd silenced, what a star! A crazy St James Infirmary brought the show to a close. Every Stetson stood, an epic ovation hailed Davina and the Vagabonds. What a way to end their European tour! What a way to end Summertyne Americana 2014! The Stetsons wouldn’t let them leave just yet…More! More! Back they came and the dancing Stetsons took home Bill Bailey.          
Russell.         

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