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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.

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Book Review: Simon Spillett - The Long Shadow of the Little Giant

If anyone was more qualified to write the definitive biography of Tubby Hayes, other than the late Ronnie Scott, then Spillett is that man. 
Spillett, born a year after Tubby died, may seem an unlikely  person to write such a definitive tome on 'The Little Giant" but, having listened to Spillett's own playing, and digesting the time and research that he has put into the project no one could have done it better. If Paul Quinichette had had Simon's literary talents maybe he could have produced a similar work on Lester Young.
Spillett covers just about every aspect of the tenorist's career from womb to tomb. Rightly recording Hayes' triumphs in America and at home - innumerable Melody Maker awards - the author also acknowledges the self destructive moments and the loves that always came second to the music.
The book brings back so many memories - the Flamingo Club on Wardour St where I used to hang out during and after my National Service days when I lived in Edgware - the musicians, the characters. Tony Hall asking the audience if anyone had a Melody Maker so he could tell them who was on the following night!
I'd follow the bands to the pub across the road during intermission, earwigging on conversations that weren't about Ddim7 or Aaug9 but "Yeah, I know her sister" or "What won the last race at Kempton?" or "Who's Arsenal playing Saturday?" etc. Musicians were human!
All this and more is revealed in this the, surely, definitive work on a complex and dedicated musician. A giant living in a world that wasn't big enough for him.
It's not a book to relax on the beach with, at circa 180,000 words - the equivalent number of notes in a Tubbs blast on Cherokee - the tide would have long come in and washed you away. It's true because you simply would not be able to put it down come hell or high water. That is, not if you belong to that generation that recognises Hayes as the UK's greatest ever jazzman.
In Simon Spillett we have a very rare individual - able to evaluate the music at the highest level and also able to convey the day to day stuff, via just about every media reference known, to the reader without loss of pace.
Again, like a Tubbs solo.
Lance.
PS: There's also an excellent discography.
PPS: Marks out of a 100? 99 - 99? Whitley Bay isn't in Yorkshire! Perhaps it should read Whitby!!
Published by Equinox.

1 comment :

Harry Monty said...

Hi Lance,

I agree - what a fantastic effort and a terrific read - I'm reading it a second time to get the full impact. All praise to Simon Spillett for an outstanding biography and history of the period.The acknowledgements reads like a who's who of all the jazz musicians of the period.
Like you, it brought back many happy memories such as nights at the Flamingo, Ronnie's old and new clubs, attending many of the BBC Jazz Club recordings, Jazz 625, the Couriers' concert at the Dominion theatre and the 1958 Jazz Jamboree at the Gaumont State Kilburn which featured not only the Couriers but also the Vic Ash Sextet, the Johnny Dankworth and Ted Heath Orchestras, the Jazz Makers, the Tony Kinsey Quartet and the Chris Barber and Humphrey Lyttleton Bands amongst others.

Happy reading.

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