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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 2023).

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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

John Bailey Quintet @ The Jazz Café. April 29

John Bailey (guitar), Tim France (tenor saxophone), Richard Iles (flugelhorn), Garry Jackson (double bass) & Steve Hanley (drums)
(Review by Russell/Photos courtesy of Mike Tilley.)
Godin Guitars endorsee John Bailey has a nice line in self deprecation. The truth behind song titles – and their meaning, if any – has been exposed by the amiable Leeds College of Music graduate: Google ‘Song Name Generator’, said Bailey. The home page asks an important question: Feeling lazy? Fill entire form with random data. The end result? An entirely random (meaningless) song title!     

John Bailey sat behind and to one side of the front line horns. Nylon string guitars lightly amplified, the horns playing acoustically, the bandleader cut a figure of band mate rather than out front, obvious band leader. His music did the talking; challenging compositions, the senior men in the band – Tim France, tenor saxophone and Richard Iles, flugelhorn – fully concentrated on the charts in front of them, the rhythm section more than regulation timekeepers, drummer Steve Hanley especially inventive.
Ted’s Entrance opened the programme. Strength in Numbers followed. The former a tune about Ted the collie (not a Google creation!), can be found on the album Heart Horizons, the latter from the recent release Black Ship Bright Sea. Bailey apologised for not having brought some CDs with him. Perhaps his current preoccupation – being on a fifty-six date nationwide tour with operatic tenor Russell Watson – excuses his somewhat disorganised merchandising operation! Little Bird flew kind of modal (Iles’ flugelhorn) to free, the bass and drums pairing – Garry Jackson and Steve Hanley – excelling. The first set came to an end with Regression. An attentive audience showed its appreciation. A minor reservation, and it is very much minor scale, with horns in full cry it was, at times, difficult to hear the nylon string guitar in the hands of Bailey. When the horns dropped out the accomplished guitarist was heard to best effect, straddling and indeed combining jazz and contemporary classical genres with enviable facility.
Second set: probably randomly generated, nevertheless a good title with which to resume – Positive Thinking. Bassist Garry Jackson’s robust, singing solo set the tone, France and Iles picked up on it with solid statements of their own and the main man, J Bailey, began to open up. A hint of Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia, perhaps Bailey has checked out the Extrapolation period of John McLaughlin.
It’s a Strange World, said Bailey. Strange indeed; a pop-operatic gig with Russell Watson the previous evening at Whitley Bay Playhouse, this Jazz Café gig a welcome change and the very next night back to the world of popular arias at Leeds Grand Theatre. What odds would you offer for the following being true? Bailey introduced Sfumato suggesting it is a term used to describe a painting technique known to scholars of the Italian Renaissance. Correct. Fellow Leeds College of Music alumnus Matt Anderson (tenor saxophone) has a tune of his own (heard at a gig in Newcastle) titled…Sfumato. Leicester City started this season as 5000-1 outsiders to win the Premier League. Two young jazz musicians, both graduates of LCoM, both come up with the same title. What odds would you offer? The erudite Bailey referenced Benjamin Britten, happily talked about another nonsense title – Amoeba Men – and closed the set with Lightning Workshop. John Bailey has assembled a stellar line-up, the presence of Franks and Iles’ an indication of the standing of the young man on the jazz scene. It will be interesting to see where John Bailey goes from here.     
Russell.

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