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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

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.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:15-4:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Nothing in Rambling @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £10.00. + bf. Upstairs. Acoustic blues duo + Michael Littlefield & Lyndon Anderson.
Fri 27: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Downstairs. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Fri 27: Tim Bloomer Collective @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 27: Jo Harrop @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. All-star line-up.
Fri 27: Faye MacCalman @ Jesmond Pool, Newcastle. 8:30pm. Tickets £6.00. from: www.seetickets.com. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & improvised Music event in association with Jesmond Pool. Note 16+ only.

Saturday, November 07, 2015

Jo Harrop Quartet @ The Gala Theatre, Durham. Nov 6.

Jo Harrop (vocals), Neil Harland (bass), Rob Walker (drums) and Paul Edis (piano).
(Review by Jerry)
Jo Harrop, a great band and a programme listing (among others) Gershwin, Porter, Legrand and Billie Holiday – what a perfect antidote to the soggy Bonfire Night I had in Borrowdale! There was a full house (100), with people being turned away at the door and an expectant hush at 12.59 and into the opening song, Love Me or Leave Me - no noisy diners here!
Looking across the river there were still autumn colours to be seen against a slate-blue sky befitting Autumn in New York. The line: “Autumn in New York is often mingled with pain”, was not true at the Gala with Jo Harrop’s vocals to soothe us. There was seasonal consolation later, too, in Legrand’s You Must Believe in Spring: “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Nothing like a bit of Shelley to adorn already beautiful lyrics!
I’m a Fool to Want You by Herron / Sinatra / Wolf is a tune which does NOT suffer from being much-covered over the years. Here the backing was stripped down to minimal - no solos - allowing the audience to focus entirely on the plaintive Billie Holiday-style delivery. It was “hear a pin drop time” in the packed room.
Piano and bass both got to solo on Richard Rodgers’ cheery, up-tempo This Can’t Be Love and then we had more master-class lyrics on Cole Porter’s It’s All Right with Me. Who else coolly rhymes “chips” with “lips” outside of a limerick?
Bye Bye Blackbird opened with just vocals and bass and, sung in the manner of Julie London, achieved another “pin-drop” silence until it became Bye Bye Blackbird (Hello Durham Constabulary) as Jo had to contend with sirens full blast on Milburngate Bridge! Nowhere’s perfect…
Rob Walker’s drumming came more to the fore on Gershwin’s lovely The Man I Love. Maybe that should be Gershwins’ as Ira’s lyrics contribute much to the enduring appeal of the tune. Tuesday, there, might be “good news day” but we were all doing nicely on Friday, thank you! I Can’t Give You Anything but Love saw Jo at her most winsome and some trading fours generated more fizz and pop than our sparklers last night.
Then more Cole Porter with an up-tempo Just One of those Things which featured more great lyrics, though apparently it was a friend of Porter’s who suggested the adjective in “gossamer wings”. No one’s perfect?
The official last number was my idea of perfect – how could they top it? Great blues piano (with piano “answering” the vocals), great bass solo and great blues singing on Billie Holiday’s Fine and Mellow…….which they then topped with their encore: I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to Be Free! I have loved this song since I first heard Jo Harrop perform it about 5 years ago and it took on added poignancy having watched, two days ago, a DVD of Twelve Years a Slave in which I found the brutality portrayed truly shocking. Anyway, the audience clearly loved it too.
Never mind soggy Bonfire Night – this was Christmas come early!
Jerry

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