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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

15229 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 248 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (March 20).

From This Moment On ...

March

Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: FILM: Mo' Better Blues @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Fri 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Scarth Hall, Staindrop, Co. Durham. 8:00pm. £10.00.
Fri 24: Archipelago + Bulbils @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 25: Vermont Big Band @ Walker Community Centre, Walker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Fundraiser for Benfield Juniours Football Club. Hot food available, BYOB.
Sat 25: John Logan & Friends @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rat Pack, Motown etc. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

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 @ 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: '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.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

A Tyne Valley Summer-ish Concert @ The Phoenix, Hexham. June 16

Tyne Valley Jazz Ensemble, Tyne Valley Youth Big Band & Tyne Valley Big Band
(Review by Russell/photo from band's website)
Advertised cautiously/prophetically as a ‘summer-ish’ end of term party, Dave Hignett’s
amazing assembly of big bands gathered at rehearsal HQ to give a public performance in preparation for several forthcoming prestigious concert dates. The ‘ish’ weather forecast proved to be accurate as Hexham was, at best, ‘cloudy but dry’.
Three competing events in spitting distance of one another fought it out for an audience – Hexham Abbey hosted an EU in/out ‘You decide’ debate, Queen’s Hall screened Cinema Paradiso as part of the Wild Skies Film Festival, and the Phoenix Bar and Club offered a triple bill of big bands. Many Tyne Valley residents voted BIG BAND JAZZ!!!
The Phoenix Club on Chisholm Place was a hive of activity: the indefatigable Hignett ran around doing three things at once: putting out music stands, setting up the PA and finding the time to talk to all and sundry. An audience arrived: supportive parents, siblings, proud grand parents. The junior band, the Tyne Valley Jazz Ensemble, looking the part in black t-shirts (kindly sponsored by a local business) with red lettering telling you they’re proud to be the Tyne Valley Jazz Ensemble, took to the stand first. A band big in number (seven trumpets, two trombones, four saxophones and a piano, bass and drums rhythm section), a band big on talent, an upbeat, varied set list met with much applause. A Marcus Miller number – Maputo – surprised, then Uncle Milo’s Shadow, Horace Silver’s The Preacher, all good stuff giving all in the band the chance to show what they could do. A young man in the trumpet section – height approx 3’6” in old money, age approx 10 – will make it as a trumpet player…if that’s what he wants to do. Similarly, a scarily good drummer is just a few short years from being an A-lister on the scene. Every solo, by every performer, met with applause. The set flew…Pass the Peas, then a calypso, closing with Lady Madonna.

The Tyne Valley Youth Big Band is to lose three or four members from the ranks. Exams finished, they’re heading off to university. It is the way with ensembles such as this. The band’s rip-roaring set list ticked all the boxes: the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, the Young Blood Brass Band’s arrangement of Rufus and Chaka Khan’s chart hit Ain’t Nobody, the sing-along Sweet Dreams, a cracking Mission Impossible and a Dave Hignett favourite – Chuck Mangione’s Children of Sanchez. A band of award-winning musicians, a trumpet player of Grade 8 (Merit) ability, a band with bundles of enthusiasm, Tyne Valley Youth Big Band is developing the stars of tomorrow.

The big boys and girls – the Tyne Valley Big Band – wound up the evening with a set of their own. In the Mood (don’t groan, this was the Doc Severinsen arrangement), Quincy Jones’ Soul Bossa Nova (Hignett quipped he put it in the set because the band needed to work on it!), the Heathian Hot Toddy (a favourite of, and feature for, baritone man John Knapton), the ensemble wasted no time, rattling through the numbers. The band’s saxes were on form – Andrea DeVere (tenor) and Kelly Rose (alto) trading, Alexis Cairns on alto. The Average White Band’s Pick up the Pieces is an ideal tune one for a band like this – the option is there to go round and round and round. Barbara Hignett belted out a fun Minnie the Moocher with audience participation encouraged/obligatory. Hayburner
vied for the tune of the night accolade. Excellent ensemble work, a big band at its best.
A Tower of Power number (Attitude Dance) and top of the kitsch list, MacArthur Park (Maynard Ferguson’s arrangement), sent the band into overdrive. A late arriving Alistair Lord made up for lost time making a fabulous contribution on trumpet and flugelhorn. A very late arriving David Gray squeezed into the trombone section and played as only he can – that’s with full on commitment. Talking of commitment, for the record it should be noted that Niall Armstrong and Peter Drake gave their services sitting in the sections of the junior ensemble.

The Tyne Valley Big Band can be heard at this weekend’s Tynedale Beer Festival. A big marquee stands on the pitch at Tynedale Rugby Club. It’ll cost you £12.00. to get in, the beer is reasonably priced, and if you are reasonably sober at four o’clock on Saturday you will hear – and remember listening to – a fantastic community big band.  
Russell.


                                            

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