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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

17372 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 656 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (Sept. 17).

From This Moment On ...

September

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 1:00-2:45pm. Free.
Sat 21: Vieux Carré Hot Four @ The Beehive, Hartley Lane, Earsdon Whitley Bay NE25 0SZ. 4:30pm-6:30pm.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Northumberland Club, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Sat 21: Jude Murphy & Alan Law @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free.
Sun 22: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Richard Herdman @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: Remy CB Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Remi, 2024 Newcastle Uni graduate, superb soul/blues voice!

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Paul Booth with the Paul Edis Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert! SOLD OUT!

Tue 24: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv. from Tully’s of Rothbury). Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 24: Sarah Gillespie @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £16.50. Duo performance with Chris Montague.

Wed 25: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 25: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 25: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 25: Moonlight Serenade Orchestra UK: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Middlesbrough Theatre. 7:30pm.

Thu 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 26: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Contemporary Jazz & the Piano’.
Thu 26: The New 58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 26: Jo Harrop & Friends @ Hexham Abbey. 8:00pm. ‘An Evening with Jo Harrop & Friends’. A Hexham Abbey Festival of Music & Arts event. £20.00., £5.00. child/student.
Thu 26: Neil Yates & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 26: Loco House Band @ Bar Loco, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 26: Tees Hot Club @ Dorma’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Mark Toomey, Neil Brodie, Graham Thompson, Adrian Beadnell.

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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