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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

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

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.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Blaydon Jazz Club. March 20

(Review by Russell/photos courtesy of Roly Veitch.)
Almost exactly a year to the day since the Strictly Smokin’ Big Band’s first visit to the Black Bull, Michael Lamb’s powerhouse outfit returned to play another gig at Blaydon Jazz Club. The established line-up, with just the one dep in (Dave Kerridge up from the Tees Delta on tenor), roared through an ambitious, wide-ranging concert programme.  
On the first day of spring (the meteorologists will tell you it was) F’reez opened with On a Clear Day. MC Guy Swinton admitted to shamelessly nicking the arrangement from a friend of the band, Mr Anthony Strong! Our man F’reez sang it in his Nu soul-jazz style. Standard material, the band sounded good. There was little indication of things to come.
Bandleader Michael Lamb has filed hundreds of numbers in the pad. Classic charts take their place, of course, but trumpeter Lamb looks to America’s contemporary composers and arrangers for inspiration. Tim Davies, working out of Hollywood, and Denver-based Adam Bartczak two such figures. Davies’ Blacknail made things clear; this was to be an exhilarating ride in the confines of the Black Bull’s compact lounge. Fantastic playing – ensemble and soloists. Direct, powerful, an ear-ringing experience! The reed section, assembled on the floor out front, pulled no punches. Excoriating solos - all given a chance to blow the roof off during the evening – altos, sopranos, tenors, baritone anchor Laurie Rangecroft, the doubling-up soloists on various reeds including clarinet and flute.
Lullaby of Bigfoot, dedicated to former band pianist Mark Jolliffe, heard a bona fide USA trumpet player – Pete Tanton – ‘kick ass’ as he, or his fellow Americans, might say. Wow! The audience got it, the applause suggested nothing else. Everyone gets Kenny Wheeler and a typically elegant composition – For PA – with Lamb conducting matters out front, saw a temporary lowering of the decibel count. F’reez returned once more to take us to Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground (arr A Strong). Adam Bartczak’s Minor’s Holiday sent tremors up the Tyne valley thanks to Lamb’s killer solo and aftershocks were registered due to an equally brutal effort from altoist Keith Robinson. Guitarist Pawel ‘Pav’ Jedrzejewski, seated more or less in the audience, had his say too.
Lindsay Hannon, engrossed in a dime novel, stepped up to tell us about That Ole’ Devil Called Love sensitively backed by Guy Swinton’s big band drummer brush work. Film Noir – 1 (we didn’t get to hear parts 2 and 3) closed an exhilarating first set; Swinton set up a N’Awlins shuffle, Steve Summers strolled along on clarinet and trumpeter Tanton followed him.
Bob Mintzer’s TV Blues is a work in progress. The iPad-aided Hannon got her Blonde Bombshell head around the lyrics – something like I’m gonna give up my life and watch tv – and then we visited the Scandinavian big band scene with Not Just a Date; Laurie Rangecroft stood up and tamed his baritone beast, reedman Robinson switching to flute. Blakey alumnus Bobby Watson is a favourite of many a band. The Strictly Smokin’ boys like him. They played his Like It Was Before with Summers blowing soprano as if it was to be his last solo before departing this Earth! It Had to Be You – it had to be F’reez and before we knew it the Blaydon Jazz Club regulars were demanding an encore. Bartczak’s Greta’s Groove hit a groove. The band could have played ’til midnight and the audience would have demanded more. The Strictly Smokin’ Big Band has come a long way since Michael Lamb first hit on the idea of forming a big band. In an interview with this blog Lamb said: You can’t nail the Mintzer without knowing the Miller!  
Russell.                           
Strictly Smokin’ Big Band: MD Michael Lamb, Pete Tanton, Gordon Marshall, Dick Stacey (trumpets); Kieran Parnaby, Mark Ferris, Robert ‘Pez’ Perry, Dr John Flood (trombones); Laurie Rangecroft (baritone saxophone); Paul Gowland (tenor & soprano saxophones), Dave Kerridge  (tenor saxophone), Steve Summers (alto & soprano saxophones, clarinet, flute, Aztec breathing machine ), Keith Robinson (alto saxophone, flute); Graham Don (piano), Pawel Jedrzejewski (guitar), Michael Whent (bass), Guy Swinton (drums), Lindsay Hannon (vocals) & F’reez (vocals)

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