Total Pageviews

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

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: 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. SOLD OUT!
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, August 16, 2015

Paul Gowland & Bradley Johnston @ The Jazz Café. August 15

Paul Gowland (tenor & alto saxophones) & Bradley Johnston (guitar)
(Review by Russell)
The rain stopped, the sun came out, as hundreds made their way along to the Tyne Bar. Sitting, standing or lazing on the grass alongside the Ouseburn, listening to a barbecue-smoked big band session, the sun-kissed were having a ball (see LL’s Strictly Smokin’ review). Some were out for the duration.
The Jazz Café’s summer season drew to a close with Paul ‘Strictly Smokin’’ Gowland playing a few tunes with Wearside-based guitarist Bradley Johnston. Standard material and one or two original compositions enthralled the front row audience. 
A bar-stool bar fly couple were there to listen. An end of term affair, Gowland, on tenor, and Johnston, seated with his trusty Ibanez, opened with Have You Met Miss Jones? Gowland’s tenor explored a much-loved tune as Johnston played the first few of many chords during the evening. However many chords there are in the Advanced Book of Jazz Guitar Chords (does such a tome exist?) BJ seemingly knows them all! John Hick’s After the Morning and Wayne Shorter’s The Albatross heard more authoritative tenor, complimented by a fearless Johnston (don’t forget, he knows all the chords).
Final year music student Johnston writes tunes. Pat’s Waltz, in homage to his (and many others) favourite guitarist Mr P Metheny has become a fixture in BJ’s set list. Gowland, the senior man in the partnership, played it with due respect, as indeed he did with all of the material. A moment of some poignancy arose as Gowland (on alto) went straight into Requeros. Written by the late Ray Truscott – respected musician, friend to Gowland and liked by everyone who came across him on the jazz scene – the number surely brought a tear to the eye.
This being a Saturday night in Newcastle the entertainment wouldn’t be complete without the usual distractions of the p*****. Pink Lane attracts its fair share of them. Partying the night away with a traffic cone on one’s head is nothing new. If the bloke with the hang-over is wondering where he put it [the traffic cone], it’s on top of the wardrobe. Our Balkan street musician friends passed by. We knew they were coming – their signature tune heard a mile off: Oh When the Saints (altogether now…), go marching in. A pie-eyed one stepped inside. Keen to continue a karaoke session from a neighbouring watering hole (I’ve got you under my skin...), mine host Kay handled the matter expertly. Whatever was said, the pie-eyed one got the message and shut up!
Second set. More Shorter. More great playing, the two men hitting it off after little more than one rehearsal. Two highlights – Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Gowland, tenor) with BJ in the spotlight and PG switching to alto on Scrapple from the Apple. Swift, altissimo, more frantic fretwork (bass lines to boot!) than is good for one’s health. Phew!!! The Jazz Café reopens for business on Tuesday September 1 with the first of two regular monthly jam sessions. It just so happens Gowland and Johnston will be on the stand. Be there.          
Russell.

No comments :

Blog Archive