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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

15478 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 499 of them this year alone and, so far, 120 this month (May 27).

From This Moment On ...

May 2023

Wed 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 31: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 31: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 31: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

June
Thu 01: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 01: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations.
Thu 01: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 01: Jake Leg Jug Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 01: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 02: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: Joseph Carville Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 02: Claire Martin & Her Trio @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. £25.00., £20.00. Feat. Jim Mullen, Alex Garnett & Jeremy Brown.
Fri 02: Guy Davis + Michael Littlefield & Scott Taylor @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm. Blues double bill.
Fri 02: Anders Ingram @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. Country blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 03: Newcastle Record Fair @ Northumbria University, Newcastle NE8 8SB. 10:00am-3:00pm. Admission: £2.00.
Sat 03: Pedigree Jazz Band @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 03: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Sue Ferris. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 03: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 03: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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).

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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