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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Postage

16051 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1058 of them this year alone and, so far, 12 this month (Dec. 6).

From This Moment On ...

December

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle. 1:00pm. £7.00.
Fri 08: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Woodland Village Hall, Bishop Auckland. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Fri 08: Sleep Suppressor + Redwell @ Head of Steam, Neville St., Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv); £5.00. student.
Fri 08: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert's Church, Shadforth, Co. Durham.
Fri 08: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £8.00.

Sat 09: Prudhoe Community Band @ Central Station, Newcastle. 10:00am - 12 noon. Charity fundraiser.
Sat 09: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Skinnergate, Darlington. 1:00pm.
Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Alan Law, Paul Grainger & Abbie Finn @ Darlington Market, Market Square, Darlington. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘Christmas Market’ outdoor gig. Wrap up warm!
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Funk Soul Sista @ Stack, Seaburn. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Beth Clarke @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Whittingham Memorial Institute, Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00., £10.00.
Sun 10: Tele-Port @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Zhenya Strigalev.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Interim Final Recitals @ Newcastle University. Details TBC.

Tue 12: Stu Collingwood Organ Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £10.00.

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: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Wed 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Hot Fingers @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 14: After Hours Student Jazz Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. . Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 14: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Mo Scott ‘Little Mo’s Festive Appearance’ @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Tees Hot Club w. Kevin Eland, Josh Bentham, Garry Hadfield, Adrian Beadnell @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

CD Review: Ella Fitzgerald - Live at Chautauqua Volume 1.

Ella Fitzgerald (vcl); Tee Carson (pno); Keter Betts (bs); Joe Harris (dms).
(Review by Lance).
Recorded on July 11, 1968 at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheatre in New York and released as the first album of the Dot Time Legends series, we have an album that finds "The First Lady of Song" in good voice, despite the acoustical vagaries that typify concerts in amphitheatres. The opening, It's All Right With Me, sounds as though Ella was at the back and the drummer up front. The voice distant and echoing, the drums overpowering. Fortunately, by the second number - I'm Beginning to See the Light - the sound seems to have been, if not resolved, at least improved and the balance levelled out. Whether this was done on the night or, as the notes indicate, newly remastered with the goal of presenting these recordings in a modern format while striving to keep the original atmosphere of the records.
Whatever, what really matters is the opportunity to hear the most swinging jazz singer ever in concert whilst still close to her peak.
It's 1968 remember and singers, even those of Ella's calibre, had to face up to the challenge of rock and pop and contemporaries less than half her age. To counter this , she attempts to meet them half way. For Once in my Life, taken slower than Stevie Wonder, brings a different dimension to the song but the medley of Sunny and Goin' Out of my Head (You Go to my Head as an intro to the latter is a clever ploy) doesn't quite match the pop versions from Bobby Hebb/Georgie Fame/Dusty Springfield, although I doubt if those artists could entwine the songs the way Ella does - she even throws in Yesterday for good measure - and it got the biggest round of applause! In fairness to Ella, their versions were done in a studio over several hours, maybe even days, whereas this was live - 10 minutes!
However, The Object of my Affection, never previously recorded by Ella, is La Grande Dame at her very finest. A great song, popular when Ella was 17.
Watch What Happens, Midnight Sun, Lady is a Tramp and One Note Samba (fast!) all work - this is the Ella we knew and loved. A Tisket A Tasket may have been overworked by 1968 but it's still being mined by singers today!
I suppose most people remember Ella Fitzgerald from the Verve songbooks, and they are GASbook masterpieces to be filed alongside the definitive Sinatra albums, but this is the real deal. If you heard Ella at Newcastle's City Hall or at any other major concert hall in in any city in the world then this will make those night's come alive again!
Lance.
PS: Needless to say the trio are fine apart from the problems with the drums.

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