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Bebop Spoken There

Quincy Jones: ''What's great about coming from a little town is that you're a big fish in a little pond and it gives you the confidence when you get to New York to be able to really compete''. (Jazzwise, December 2024/January 2025).

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

17562 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 836 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Nov. 22).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sun 01: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:15pm (12 noon doors). £7.50. Note earlier start.
Sun 01: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 01: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Laurels, Whitley Road, Whitley Bay. 4:00pm. £10.00. SOLD OUT!
Sun 01: Martin Fletcher Band @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 01: Mark Williams Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Album launch gig.
Sun 01: Christmas After Hours @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society event. Six piece band.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 02: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137.1:00pm. Free.

Tue 03: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Dean Stockdale, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.
Tue 03: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 04: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Concert. Free. .
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 04: Kat Eaton @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:15pm. Soulful vocals, excellent band.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘George - named musicians, vocalists & composers (Chisholm, Duke, Lewis, Shearing, Benson, Melly, Gershwin et al)’.
Thu 05: Jools Holland’s R & B Orchestra @ Newcastle City Hall. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. Free.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. Guest band special with the Middlesbrough Jazz and Blues Orchestra 8pm. Free.

Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Sue Ferris Quintet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 07: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Hot Club du Nord @ St. Cuthbert’s Church, Shadforth DH6 1LB. Tel: 01429 823400. 7:30pm. £15.00. (inc. refreshments).
Sat 07: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 07: Bellavana @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 7:45-9:45pm. Free.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Monday, January 04, 2016

CD Review: Live at Foxrock Folk Club – The Parish Hall Tapes (revisited)

(Editors note: We don't normally do more than one review of the same CD unless the second contributor is offering a totally different view which isn't the case here. However, due to the holiday period causing some lack of communication among our blogforce, fans of Irish folk, jazz and blues can read again the fascinating story of the Foxrock Folk Club and the resultant recordings.)
(Review by Russell)
To the south of Dublin is the village of Cornelscourt. In the 1960s its ‘rather nondescript and rundown’ parish hall was to become the venue of Foxrock Folk Club presenting folk, jazz, blues and poetry. A 15 year old local schoolboy, Kevin McCann, had a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He took it along to the parish hall and recorded many of the musicians who played at the club during 1970-72. Somehow the tapes survived down the years and some fifteen years ago were transferred to CD. Careful restoration and mastering followed and The Parish Hall Tapes is the result.
The two discs have a generous running time; the first at over one hour, the second at one hour fifteen minutes. Legendary names on the Irish folk scene were recorded at Foxrock  – Al O’Donnell, Andy Irvine, Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew to name but four – as were a host of superb acoustic blues musicians and a first rate jazz outfit.
Disc one, comprising of nineteen tracks of which thirteen feature traditional folk material, covers a wide range. Some of the recorded sessions include potent political commentaries from Luke Kelly – Alabama ’58 and Jail of Cluain Meala – the bluesmen Red Peters and Brian Fry play country blues, Johnny Norris plays ragtime and, as the informative album notes point out, pianist Tony Drennan plays Meade Lux Lewis on ‘the somewhat battered parish hall piano’. Peters and Fry – known as Clawhammer – play Alberta. Peters’ vocals are quite something, big and powerful. The jazz tune on the first CD is Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone by the Butler Fox Jazz Band. Clarinettist Phil Butler and Rock Fox (trumpet and flugelhorn) co-led one of Ireland’s finest traditional to mainstream jazz bands. The septet, including pianist Tony Drennan, was surely one to be heard, and now, thanks to Cornelscourt Records, this fascinating documentary project brings them to life.   
The second CD includes a collector’s item. Luke Kelly singing Blackwaterside is his one and only available recording of the song. Ronnie Drew sings McAlpine’s Fusiliers, a tune as pertinent today as it was at the time of this 1972 recording. The Dirty Dozens – Johnny Norris and Gerry Doyle, guitars, Red Peters, vocals, Shay Fogarty, harmonica – are heard on Statesboro Blues and it is Peters and Fogarty (superb harp playing) who steal the show with Louise, Louise Blues. The thirty-seventh and closing track features nine minutes and twenty two seconds of sheer excitement as the Butler Fox Jazz Band blow up a storm on Swinging the Blues. The audience response is ecstatic (a noticeable feature across the two CDs) as Fox proudly introduces the ‘All Irish Rhythm Section’ of Tony Drennan, Jimmy McKay on bass, and ‘the incomparable’ John Wadham, drums.
Principal credits:
Kevin McCann, original recordings at Foxrock Folk Club, Cornelscourt
Johnny ‘Oldhitz’ Hughes, transfer to CD
Adam Sinclair, restoration and mastering
Barry Somerville, art work and design
Liam Clare and Michael Blake, photography
Jeremy Kearney, producer
The Parish Hall Tapes is clearly a labour of love for all those involved with the project – the restoration of the tapes, the research, the CD artwork and the lovingly written booklet.
For those with a passing interest, The Parish Hall Tapes is a recommended purchase. For those with a keen interest, consider it an essential purchase.
Russell
Live at Foxrock Folk Club – The Parish Hall Tapes is available on Cornelscourt Records, catalogue number CR 001.

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