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Bebop Spoken There

Wendell Brunious: "Because the blues is not 1,4 and 5 or 1,4,5,2,1. You could wake up with a flat tyre or a headache this morning, that's the blues, man" - (DownBeat, Oct. 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!"

Postage

15878 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 885 of them this year alone and, so far, 83 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums). CANCELLED!

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Paul Skerritt @ Vespa Italian Bar & Steakhouse, Primrose Hill, Jarrow. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 483 3355.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Sound the Trumpets @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 05: Hot Club du Nord @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00. POSTPONED!
Thu 05: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Tommy Bentz Trio + Mark Croft Duo + George Shovlin & George Lamb @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Harbour View Speakeasy's USA blues double bill + Shovlin & Lamb!
Thu 05: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 06: Alcyona Mick @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 2:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Balo @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Fri 06: Lexer/Mayes/Noble + Semay Wu + Miman @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Vault, Hexham. 7:30pm. £20.00. Book in advance. Moreno with Alan Law, Paul Grainger & John Bradford.
Fri 06: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. 'Celebrating Oscar'.
Fri 06: Nu Brass Sounds: Big Brass Bash @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: King Bees @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 07: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 10:15am. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Hot Club du Nord @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 07: Bugge & Niccols + Moore & Fairhall @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - All the Things You Are. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 07: Rie Nakajima @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Sat 07: Boys of Brass @ Salt Market Social, Liddell St., North Shields. From 7:00pm. £9.00. + bf.
Sat 07: Samuel Blaser Trio + Toxvaerd & Zeeberg + Muramatsu & Welch @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 08: Zoë Gilby Quintet + Ubunye @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Line-up inc. Tony Kofi. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 08: Tommy Bentz Band @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. USA blues band.

Mon 09: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 09: Cherise Adams-Burnett @ The Grove, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. .

Tue 10: Abbie Finn Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:30pm.

Sunday, March 08, 2015

Great North Big Band Jazz Festival (Day 2) @ North Shore. March 7

(Review by Russell)
Day two. An early start for some at an over subscribed workshop. Tutors, participants, North Shore staff and festival volunteers were at it early. LeedsBig Band Theory launched the competition proper at noon. The Open Section (senior bands, typically a university big band) attracted no fewer than nine entries. The Leeds-based band led by MD Edd Maughan were making a return visit to Sunderland with two familiar faces from the Durham County Youth Big Band in the ranks – drummer Abbey Finn and a busy (what’s new?) Tom Hill (trumpet).
The first tune of five – Tune Up – was a band composition. Were they tuning up or were they  playing Tune Up? The latter. A kaleidoscope of colours, bold, ambitious, would it catch the ear of adjudicators Mick Donnelly and Paul Jones? Here’s That Rainy Day caught the ear of your reviewer.
Newcomers to the Great North Big Band Jazz Festival MSC Big Band (Manchester Student Community Big Band) made a big impression. South Rampart Street Parade a good choice with a contemporary treatment. The band’s resident composer/arranger Sam James offered the band Taste My Grape (My Grape is Fizzy) – it tasted good. At one o’clock precisely the first of the day’s highlights. At short notice vocalist Jenny Shrimpton depped for the unwell Fabia Carney. Shrimpton sang Skyfall (Adele, 007). This was one of the great performances anywhere, anytime. What would the adjudicators think? The band’s MD Tom Guyer and Assistant MD Sam Walker – Guyer (keyboards), Walker (drums) a young man from the north east studying medicine – led from the front with enthusiasm.
MD Dave Hignett is a man big on talent (a top trumpet player) and big on enthusiasm. His Tyne Valley Big Band (all twenty five or twenty six, or not quite sure of the numbers) crowded the stage, someone fired a gun (metaphorically) and they sped off on several crazy laps of Theme from the Flintstones. You couldn’t help but smile. The show-stopping Barbara Hignett (vocals) stopped the show and, literally, silenced the crowd, finger to lips ‘Shhhh’ as she hushed It’s Oh So Quiet. Then, bang!!! What a showgirl! A dynamic Live and Let Die (Andrea DeVere, tenor saxophone), Tyne Valley Big Band-style. A community band to be proud of.
University of Lancaster Music Society Big Band presented four numbers. The band’ s joint MD Jonathan Vince (Matthew Clare, co-MD) led his troops into battle with his own epic tenor solo on As Time Goes By. Vocalist Amelia Jay sang clearly, in tempo on It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing). A good set. Musicians and audience were looking for refreshment. The bar had been open for a couple of hours. A frothy pint of the Leamside Brewery’s Adventure,  a ‘hello’ to familiar faces on the way back from the bar - Tony, John, Peter, Alex, Tom, a familiar face every step. 
Pre-competition, two of the bands’ proposed programmes looked good (on paper) and one of them – Durham Alumni Big Band - were ready to go. MD Shaune Eland conducted three pieces – ESP (arr. Matt Roberts), Alfedo (arr. Stan Sultzmann) and James Hamilton’s Back on Your Heads. Alex Baker (tenor) on ESP exemplified what this band is about – consummate musicianship, no ‘show’, no grandstanding. All sections could be heard at all times. A sign of a good band. Ian Robinson took a flugel feature on Alfredo and the ensemble work on James Hamilton’s piece was a delight. Special mention for Paul Grainger (double bass). A late dep for the unavailable Amy Baker. Grainger sight read the parts and Shaune Eland thanked him for doing a grand job. Mind you, PG had it easy working with an ace rhythm section – Dean Stockdale (piano), Tom Stephenson (guitar) and ‘the award-winning’ Stephen Fletcher (drums)!
Last year’s Great North Big Band Jazz Festival included the debut appearance of the sensational Managers’ Big Band. Dynamic isn’t the word. Pianist MD Ben Shepherd and his Bolton-based band make Buddy Rich appear a shrinking violet! They were back. Tank! (Opening Theme to Bebop Cowboy), comp. Yoko Kanno, set the pace (breakneck) and it didn’t slacken. Kyran Matthews (tenor) stripped paint off the walls. Last year’s award-winning trumpeter Jay Shepherd played impossibly brilliant stuff on Portrait of Louis Armstrong and it left one question hanging in the air…Had they done enough to win? A big band fan and supporter of Bebop Spoken Here suggested they could well have done more than enough. 
Title holders Durham University Big Band came out fighting. MD Chris Jones didn’t have to crack the whip as his charges ripped into Whiplash. All to play for. Richard Turner’s Too Minor (arr. Rueben Fowler) featured solos from alto sax player Dan Garel and Ollie Farley (guitar). 
The Durham students were followed by Huddersfield University Big Band, themselves previous winners at North Shore. Neal Hefti, Gordon Goodwin, Don Menza – good choices. Perhaps the best selection was Bob Florence’s E-Motions (Part 2). Baritone saxophonist Jenny Ashley starred in this moody piece (was it in E?). MD Sean Miller directed with quiet authority. A most impressive set.
The final band on the stand was making its debut public performance. The Gala Big Band has been put together in a matter of months at its Gala Theatre base in Durham by pianist MD Paul Edis. An ensemble drawn from the local community, Edis informed the North Shore audience that no fewer than forty five musicians have signed up to rehearsal sessions! Whittled down to more manageable big band numbers, Edis and co kicked-off with Basie’s One O’clock Jump. Edis must be delighted to have veteran pianist George Hetherington on board. Section soloists stood up and went for it. Nervous or not, they did themselves proud. Lil Darlin’  cut the mustard, no mean feat considering the delicate beauty of the composition.  The Gala Big Band will be in concert at the Gala Theatre on April 19.
The adjudicators – Paul Jones and Mick Donnelly – deliberated. Heads together, their comments committed to paper, the bands (all nine of them) joined the audience to hear the results (including four additional Adjudicators’ Awards). Festival Director Bill Watson invited Professor Gary Holmes, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Sunderland University, to present the awards:
Adjudicators’ Award: Andrea DeVere (tenor saxophone) Tyne Valley Big Band
Adjudicators’ Award: Ollie Farley (guitar) Durham University Big Band
Adjudicators’ Award: Jenny Shrimpton (vocals) MSC Big Band
Adjudicators’ Award: Jonny Dunn (trumpet) Durham Alumni Big Band
Most Entertaining Programme: Tyne Valley Big Band
Best Section: Saxophone Section, Durham Alumni Big Band
Best Soloist: Kyran Matthews (tenor saxophone) The Managers Band
Best Band: Durham Alumni Big Band     

A winners’ concert followed the competition. Big smiles, relaxed playing. A great way to end another memorable day at the twelfth Great North Big Band Jazz Festival. Day three (Sunday) starts with a workshop, then the competition element resumes with Schools and Youth Sections. A guaranteed great day out.
Russell.

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