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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

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

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.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Noel Dennis Trio @ Jazz Café - May 20.

Noel Dennis - trumpet, flugelhorn. Paul Edis - piano. Andy Champion - double bass.
(Review by Steven T/sketches by Vanessa/photos by Pam)
It was a tough choice, Blaydon last Sunday or Jazz Café tonight. I'm a known philistine for my preference for bands with drums, but Friday night at the Caff has become a regular part of the routine. Man pneumonia intervened and the Caff won out.
I was sat with an American couple from Oregon and Hawaii, now resident in Newcastle, who weren't sure whether to stay or not. She was grinning from the start but he held out until Andy’s' first big solo when pleasure burst out all over his face. I know you're not supposed to have favourites, he told me afterwards. He's a bassoon player and music student and she's a conservation scientist, which means she tries to prevent the deteriation of art - a bit like the band I suppose - and she drew a picture of them while they performed.
Two music stands and a microphone stand from the night before set for seated musicians served to illustrate that these musicians are giants on the local scene. Birthday boy Mark Williams told me 'these guys are world class' and I wasn't going to argue. Just as well, following Shorters' Fe Fi Fo Fum he shouted - I smell the blood of an… enough! intervened the ladies he was sat with. I explained to our American friends why everyone found this hilarious.
I'm claiming the Surman amendment - again? - but I know we got the aforementioned Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson and two from Dennis favourite Tom Harrell. Highlight of the night for me was a Miles Davis mash-up - is that blasphemy? - starting with Blue in Green, in my view one note short of a masterpiece like album mate Flamenco Sketches. He'd warned us it was going into something else and, when Paul lifted the piano lid and started twanging the strings, I wondered whether all this talk of progressive rock - I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it - had got to him and he was going to start banging in nails like the late Keith Emmerson. Re-enter Noel Dennis and it was clear this was something from Bitches Brew, the title track as it happens.
With the tangled web of North East Jazz musicians I wasn't sure whether I'd heard Noel Dennis before but once he got playing I knew I had. He does Miles, whether Kind of Blue or Bitches Brew. As well as Miles, on several occasions he reminded me of Freddie Hubbard, which is just about as high a compliment as I can pay any trumpet player.
Having previously said Andy is, if anything, even better on electric bass, I've changed my mind again and, if anything, he's even, even better on upright. He has phases he told me afterwards.
What's left to say about the good doctor? Musician, composer, educator extraordinaire, held in such regard by the many young musicians under his wing that can border on hero-worship. King Oliver, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and now Lord Paul. He is to North East Jazz what Curtis Mayfield was to Chicago soul in the sixties and early seventies, and they called him the gentle genius. And Chris always says what a lovely lad he is. I hate him me.
Following a particularly boisterous piano solo, Mark announced - I love it when he does that shhhh said the ladies around him. But Mark wasn't the star of the night; that accolade went to Chaplin, Lindsay Hannon's dog, when another Lord Paul solo had him in a spin when he started chasing his tail, which sounds like the name of a song.
There's a quintet version of this band in Darlington in a couple of weeks, presumably with a drummer yeh, which is utterly mouth-watering. I've got my sleeping bag and flask ready to queue overnight to ensure a seat, just in case there's any sense in the world.
Steven T

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