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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.

Monday, April 18, 2016

GIJF: The Simon Spillett Quartet Play the Music of Tubby Hayes - Sage Gateshead. April 17

 Simon Spillett (ten); Steve Melling (pno); Alec Dankworth (bs); Miles Levin (dms).
(Review by Lance/Photos courtesy of Ken Drew).
We were still on a high from our trip back in time to the '30s and '40s with Café Society Swing when we entered the Tardis, a.k.a. The Northern Rock Foundation Hall or, for this weekend, The Jazz Lounge. This journey in time took us back to the '50s, '60s and early '70s and the life, times and music of Tubby Hayes.
This was done by showing the recently released documentary, A Man in a Hurry, followed by a live set from the Simon Spillett Quartet then a Q & A  with Spillett and the film's director, Lee Cogswell.
First things first.
The film - produced by Mark Baxter, a lifelong Hayes devotee, and Lee Cogswell I think had everyone enthralled. To me, it was further proof if such proof was needed, that Hayes was the all-time greatest British jazz musician and one of the few who could meet the Americans on a level playing field. The BBC footage of Tubby in full flight was tantalisingly short but surely served to send the believers to dig out the vinyl or the newly converted to head for the record store.
There were also many tributes paid to The Little Giant from, among others, Ronnie Scott, Spike Wells and, not surprisingly, tonight's saxophonist, Simon Spillett.
Spillett has long been an authority on jazz and his own biography of Tubby Hayes, The Long Shadow of the Little Giant, unquestionably the definitive work.
The fact that Spillett is himself a tenor player of formidable technique was proved in the set that followed  rubber-stamping his credentials.
The line-up was slightly different to that that was advertised in the programme with Steve Melling replacing John Critchenson and Miles Levin replacing Clark Tracey who in turn had replaced Spike Wells!
It didn't matter, from the opening bars of Royal Ascot we knew this was the real deal. Spillett soars through the changes at tempo de lick.  A Pint of Bitter (tune title not a demand) then a change of mood - Soria, a ballad to Tubby's second wife. Opus Ocean, The Serpent and then...Cherokee. If Spillett had been an astronaut he'd have been breakfasting on Mars by now and Slough is a fair distance from Gateshead!
Melling played brilliantly, Levin, son of a famous drummer, proved that talent can run in the family whilst Dankworth kept the Wavendon flag flying and, didn't blemish the family escutcheon - far from it - he excelled!
Next up, the Q & A session.
After the inevitable moment's silence, that usually seems like an hour when the audience are asked 'Any Questions? the questions came. A suitable end to an enjoyable evening.
But, overall, the night belonged to the late, great Tubby Hayes.
Lance.

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