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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio + Abbie Finn @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Saturday, April 02, 2016

Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ The Customs House, South Shields - April 1

Duncan Galloway (vcl); Malcolm Baxter, David Ford (tpt); Adrian Fry (tmb); Robert Fowler; Andy Hooley, Oliver Wilby (reeds); Richard Busiakiewicz (pno);  David Berry (bs); Keith Stephen (gtr/bjo); Dominic Sales (dms).
(Review by Lance).
An evening of sheer fun-filled delight appreciated by a packed Customs House. That it was music popular before some were born or, more likely, after most were born didn't matter - it was timeless.
Tried and tested - lollipops - said one aficionado. Maybe, but it was done so professionally that I, for one, was prepared to close my eyes and imagine I was sipping cocktails and dancing with Jessie Matthews, at the Monseigneur Restaurant, to Lew Stone and his Orchestra or listening to Duke Ellington whilst swigging bathtub gin with Dutch Schultz at the Cotton Club.
Such was the impact the band had on me.
I'd only previously heard the PRO live on one occasion and that was perhaps 10/12 years ago at Keswick. The personnel may have changed over the years but the commitment to entertaining their audience without compromise remains.
Galloway (left) is the perfect frontman; singer, dancer, comic* he's Al Bowlly, Fred Astaire, Rudy Vallee and Tommy Trinder rolled into one.
Lots of features for the instrumentalists: Malcolm Baxter (Ain't Misbehavin'); Adrian Fry (I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues); Robert Fowler (Stealin' Apples); Oliver Wilby (Body and Soul); The pianist, did Galloway say Richard Evans? (no it was Busiakiewicz - see comment) gave us Honeysuckle Rose and Dominic Sales was featured on Drummin' Man.
I spoke to Dominic (at the right of the group photo)during the interval at the nearby Steamboat speakeasy little realising he was the same Dominic who operates the Jellymould Jazz record label. Jellymould moves in a more contemporary area than the PRO yet Sales is a drummer au fait with any genre as proved by his chorus on skulls during Drummin' Man.
The band within a band came down front for Dinah and, lo and behold, who should be on banjo but our own local hero Keith Stephen! Keith's solo near brought the house down. You can catch Keith again with the north-east's own '20s/'30s specialists, the New Century Ragtime Orchestra, at Caedmon Hall, Gateshead on May 20.
Yes, a good time was had by all and I left thinking that the out chorus on Fletcher Henderson's King Porter Stomp is still as exciting now as it was on the 1932 recording.
Photos.
Lance.
*(Galloway gag)
Two men facing a firing squad are asked if they have a last request.
The first man says, "I'd like to hear a record by the Pasadena Roof Orchestra."
The second man says, "Can I be shot first?"

2 comments :

Unknown said...

Hi Lance, Richard Busiakiewicz, my Polish pronounciation probably made it sound like Evans ;-) Thanks for the lovely review! best regards Duncan Galloway

Lance said...

Thanks Duncan - now corrected!

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