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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Postage

16051 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1058 of them this year alone and, so far, 12 this month (Dec. 6).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sat 09: Prudhoe Community Band @ Central Station, Newcastle. 10:00am - 12 noon. Charity fundraiser.
Sat 09: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Skinnergate, Darlington. 1:00pm.
Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Alan Law, Paul Grainger & Abbie Finn @ Darlington Market, Market Square, Darlington. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘Christmas Market’ outdoor gig. Wrap up warm!
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Funk Soul Sista @ Stack, Seaburn. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Beth Clarke @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Whittingham Memorial Institute, Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00., £10.00.
Sun 10: Tele-Port @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Zhenya Strigalev.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Interim Final Recitals @ Newcastle University. Details TBC.

Tue 12: Stu Collingwood Organ Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £10.00.

Wed 13: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 13: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 13: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Wed 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Hot Fingers @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 14: After Hours Student Jazz Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. . Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 14: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Mo Scott ‘Little Mo’s Festive Appearance’ @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Tees Hot Club w. Kevin Eland, Josh Bentham, Garry Hadfield, Adrian Beadnell @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 15: Paul Edis @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 15: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 15: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: Paul Skerritt @ Black Horse Inn, Crook. From 7:00pm.
Fri 15: Paul Edis: A Jazzy Christmas @ St Cuhtbert's Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00. SOLD OUT! Waiting list open.
Fri 15: Zoë Gilby Trio @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £12.00. Fri 15: Strictly Smokin' Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. First night of two.
Fri 15: Darlington Big Band @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £10.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 15: Baghdaddies @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £14.00.; £10.00.

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Harry Potter and a Quintet On Fire - The Sue Ferris Quintet @ Ushaw College, Friday, May 27.











Sue Ferris, tenor sax & flute, Graham Hardy, trumpet & flugelhorn, Paul Edis, piano, Andy Champion, bass and Rob Walker, drums.
(Review/photos by Jerry)
Walking around inside Ushaw College you feel as if you have inadvertently wandered into a Harry Potter movie: the whole complex is impressively Neo-Gothic with much of the interior work designed by Pugin (of Palace of Westminster fame); a huge wall adjoins the main buildings constructed, apparently, for the sole purpose of playing “Cat”, an arcane ball-game like a prototype Quidditch and even the lengthy stroll to the toilets (everything here is on a grand scale) is via an “ambulacrum” with mullioned windows looking out over a grassed quadrangle.
There was certainly magic in the air tonight woven by Sue Ferris and her band of four top musical sorcerers (no apprentices here!) No apprentices, but there was a “wand” as the trusty sax was swapped for a silver flute at the first set’s end for a beautiful tune entitled Witchcraft. Apparently the only thing Sue Ferris couldn’t bewitch was the microphone which fell and slowly snaked floorwards earlier during Watch the Birdie – a Wayne Shorter tune with music cleverly mimicking the words of the title. Like a snake-charmer, she played the most persuasive of solos but gravity put the recalcitrant mic’ beyond her powers. Paul Edis (promoter/pianist/technician) fettled it at half-time. No rest for the wicked!
Earlier we had heard Just Squeeze Me with some fine interplay between sax and trumpet at the end and Well You Needn’t – which I noted down as “magic Monk”.
“Magic” was just my reaction on hearing a familiar favourite but both words seem apposite in the context of Harry Potter in a former seminary!
My notes on the Monk tune also included: “complex piano solo…staccato trumpet blasts…bass solo then crashing drum solo”, with the afterthought, “but subtly varied”. I returned to these notes in an attempt to articulate WHY I so enjoyed this quintet and the reason is partly encapsulated here in the combination of power and subtlety. For a quintet it is a BIG sound: the rhythm section pulls no punches; Sue Ferris, when she puffs her cheeks and runs down into the “basement notes” (my terminology – sorry!) can rattle the floorboards and Graham Hardy can hold a long note longer than I can nurse a pint of real ale!
Yet each can construct solos of such subtlety and variation that you wait, spellbound, to see where they are going next. Take the bluesy piano solo on Some Do, for example, or Andy Champion’s bowed bass on Silver’s Opus de Funk. Or the moody sax solo on Song for My Father with its cascading high notes, repeated phrases and downward runs. Or Graham Hardy’s mellow flugelhorn on his own arrangement of One Hand, One Heart. Or ANY of them on the last two numbers – Mercy, Mercy, Mercy and Take the A Train which brought rapturous applause.
A second reason, which endeared the quintet to this big and mixed-age audience, (more magic, there, I think) is the accessibility of the music. The set-list choices (I think I have mentioned them all apart from The Double-up) are mostly familiar tunes by familiar musicians; the ensemble playing is infectiously rhythmical and strong and the solos, however complex, are never so precious or technical as to bewilder the average listener like me. Thanks to all for a “magical” evening.
Jerry.
P.S. This outstanding performance was preceded by a brief “appetiser” from The Early Bird Band. See below for comments and pic..

3 comments :

Hugh said...

Great review, Jerry, for a great concert. Shame, though about the few people who insisted on having extended conversations or rustling popcorn packets during the performance.

JERRY said...

Sorry to hear that - nothing near us like that (front/right). Sadly it seems to be a feature at all manner of public performances these days!

Steven T said...

What s soulful player too. She joins that elite band including Mezz Mezrow, Eddie Hinton, Bill Clinton and FDT. I haven't included Zawinul, Corea and McLauglin because, as Miles said, they don't see colour; unlike him.

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