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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

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.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

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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