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Bebop Spoken There

Orrin Evans: “Now, getting a teaching spot is the new record deal”. (DownBeat, November, 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

17502 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 776 of them this year alone and, so far, 14 this month (Nov. 5).

From This Moment On ...

November

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm.
Fri 08: TC & the Groove Family + Swannek + Knats @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 09: Moscow Drug Club @ Hamsterley Village Hall, Co. Durham DL13 3QF. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sat 09: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 10: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘second Sunday in the month’ residency.
Sun 10: Panharmonia @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £6.00.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Moscow Drug Club @ Lesbury Village Hall, nr. Alnwick NE66 3PP. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sun 10: SH#RP Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Graham Hardy’s Eclectic Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 12: Matthew Forster Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.
Tue 12: Phil’s Elastic Band @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Free, but ticketed, book online.

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: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 13: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: corto.alto @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 7:45pm (doors 7:00pm). £14.00. + bf.

Thu 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Faye MacCalman & John Pope @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 14: Student Performances @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 4:00pm. Inc. Olly Styles (saxophone).
Thu 14: John Stowell & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Top class US/UK guitar duo!
Thu 14: Struggle Buggy + King Bees @ The Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Top class blues double bill!
Thu 14: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Jeremy McMurray (keys); Kevin Eland (trumpet); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Adrian Beadnell (bass).

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Darlington Jazz Festival. April 26: A Festival Concert Finale @ St Augustine’s

(Review by Russell)
The festival’s now traditional closing event is programmed by Darlington Jazz Club. This year’s guests – the Simon Read Octet – have firm associations with the prestigious Leeds College of Music degree course. The west Yorkshire hot house has established a veritable conveyor belt of talented musicians. Bassist Simon Read leads a superb octet, playing his own compositions with a recently released CD – Times Leap – to tour. The assured Read has assembled a cracking outfit; trumpeter of the moment Laura Jurd, the brilliant altoist Ben Lowman, the equally brilliant Will Howard (tenor saxophone/clarinet), the nu-school guitarist Michael de Souza, the in demand Kevin Holbrough (trombone), pianist/lecturer Jamil Sheriff and ace drummer Sam Gardner.
The set opened with the first track on the octet’s CD, Leaps and Bounds. Nicely warmed-up, Low Point raised the stakes with an exhilarating alto/tenor chase. An untitled number (Read confessed he struggled to come up with titles) and a brace of punning titles – Read Between the Lines and Read All About It (the latter with a swinging jam session feel to it) – gave scope to the soloists. All members of the octet are accomplished soloists. Jurd and Holbrough, flanking the demon reeds – Lowman and Howard – produced extended solos. The academic Sheriff long-since achieved grade eight and made a top-grade contribution throughout the set. A ballad – The Coldstones Cut – heard Howard on clarinet and, flying high on alto, Ben Lowman. Simon Says featured Jurd in an urgent, Mingus-inspired piece stoked by Read’s propulsive bass playing topped-off by Sheriff’s dazzling solo flight and Gardner’s unfailingly impressive drumming.
Keeping together an octet for any length of time can’t be easy. It will be interesting to see how Simon Read’s project develops.
This year’s Darlington Jazz Festival, the fourth, can be described as the best yet. The use of several venues in the town centre worked well. It is safe to assume that next year these venues will be supplemented by others. Darlington Jazz Festival wouldn’t exist but for an army of willing helpers, all giving freely of their time. From one venue to another young volunteers ran the show doing every job that needed to be done. The year round work takes the form of a fortnightly jazz club session. Small group performances can be heard in the Quakerhouse (Sundays, 5:30pm) and big band concerts will be staged at pop-up venues dotted in and around the town centre (also Sundays, 5:30pm). Check Bebop Spoken Here’s listings for details. The next one is a big band session on Sunday May 10 at The Keys on Skinnergate. The swinging Newcastle-based Strictly Smokin’ Big Band will be in town. Admission on the door: £5.00. & £3.00.
Next year’s Darlington Jazz Festival, the Friendly Jazz Festival, is already in the diary.  
Russell.                  



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