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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Sunday, October 04, 2015

CD Review: Kansas Smitty's House Band - Kansas Smitty's ****.


(Review by Lance).
Where have all the swingers gone? Trad/New Orleans/Dixieland bands abound as do  hard bop to contemporary combos. But where are those in between bands - the bands that swing without sounding as if the drummer has a clubfoot or, at the other extreme, three feet and five hands?
I'm talking mainstream.
Locally, the Esquire Jazzmen make a decent fist of it and occasionally the Maine St. Jazzmen move over from their Dixieland base but, by and large, the middle ground has become somewhat barren. Admittedly we have several big bands and Django style outfits who do the Swing Shifts but missing are the small bands playing in the style of such bands as those led by Humph, Bruce Turner, Kenny Baker and Harry Hayes in the UK or the likes of Red Allen and Buck Clayton in The States. Sadly, all of these names are now in the obituary columns although, in the case of Buck Clayton, are not entirely forgotten in the form of the Buck Clayton Legacy Band led by Alyn Shipton and Matthias Seuffert who play Sage Gateshead on October 30. Seuffert is also, as always, one of the core performers at this year's Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party - a weekend where, for three days, I will have no cause for complaint at the lack of swing.
Perhaps, one day, Kansas Smitty's House Band will make its way north - I hope so.
Pete Horsfall, we recall from the Basin Street Brawlers, and here his driving trumpet lead also kicks Smitty's House Band along.
Warm Embrace, co-written by Smitty and Fox sounds like it was a number from one of those songwriting teams that abounded in the '30s - beautiful! And yet all the tracks are originals - only Cross, Webb, Ireland and Edwards don't get their name on the scoresheet.
The blurb describes the album as "a crafted blend of Kansas City jazz, New Orleans funk, trad and swing, with a touch of avant-garde/improv." Don't let these last two genres put you off. This is avant-garde as it was in the 1930s/'40s. Close your eyes and it could be John Kirby/Raymond Scott.Kansas City 7 or an Ellington small group time-lifted to today.
Highly recommended for "them as likes their music on the jumping side" - amazingly I picked up that quote from a Glenn Miller broadcast and it's even more appropriate here!
Kansas Smitty's House Band have their own bar  in East London's at 63 - 65 Broadway Market, E8 4PH. Next time I'm in the Capital I'll be making a beeline - if I don't then maybe they'll come up to Newcastle to play the Jazz Coop's jazz bar at the Globe or the Jazz Café!
The album is available as a download (£8.99); CD (£10); Vinyl (£15.) from Kansas Smitty's official store.
Lance.
Pete Horsfall (tpt/vcls); Giacomo Smith (alt/clt); Ruben Fox (ten); Theon Cross (tuba/tmb); Joe Webb (pno); Dave Archer (gtr); Ferg Ireland (bs); Pedro Segundo (dms) + Leonie Evans (vcl); Brian Edwards (ten).

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