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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 2024).

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...

Josh Weir: I love the writing on bebop spoken here... I think the work you are doing is amazing.

Postage

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sat 21: Lindsay Hannon Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £15.00. ‘Swinging with Christmas Songs’.
Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 21: Jackson’s Wharf Xmas Party @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 7:00pm. Free. Featuring the New ’58 Jazz Collective.
Sat 21: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sun 22: Hot Club du Nord @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £15.00. + bf. Xmas party. SOLD OUT!
Sun 22: Red Kites Jazz @ Gibside Chapel, nr. Rowlands Gill. 1:00pm. Admission charge applies.
Sun 22: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 22: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Revolutionaires @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb rhythm & blues outfit.
Sun 22: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger & Mark Robertson @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Line-up TBC.
Sun 22: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music (musicians TBC).
Sun 22: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Zerox, Sandhill, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors).

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Mon 23: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 4:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Mon 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. TBC.
Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free. Business as usual!.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 27: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Is this the ultimate North East Jazz Supergroup? - Noel Dennis Quintet @ Opus 4 Darlington - June 17

Noel Dennis (trumpet, flugel); Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Edis (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Adrian Tilbrook (drums).
(Review by Steve T/Photos from BSH archives). 
Piano intro, slow start settling into a mid-tempo groove - it begins. A round of solos, first round to Andy.
I could never be disappointed hearing Mark Williams, but, for some reason, I was expecting a saxophonist; there's something warm and cosy and perfect about a standard quintet. However, I quickly realised Dennis is one of those trumpet players who doesn't need a sax player and, as I said, I’ve never minded listening to Mark.
A couple of Tom Harrell songs, as always with Dennis; his first switch to trumpet between the two and the band appropriately pick up the pace. Edis drops a reference of The Way You Look Tonight and did I hear a faint hint of a response in Marks comping? His first major solo and he turns up the jouissaunce, taking it up and up and up. Round two to Mark, though Adrian came back with a rousing, perfectly concise solo.
The infamous Miles Davis mash-up.
As a non-musician it seems to me it should be impossible not to play something like Blue in Green note for note, such is the familiarity with the piece. Dennis plays it note for note and then switches to something entirely fresh. I think I'm right in saying we got more of it than we did with the trio version at the Caff a few weeks back, wringing every milligram of emotion from it ‘til this listener was on the verge of embarrassing himself.
Anticipation by now at fever pitch; how are they going to do the switch, with Paul on his portable and additional guitar and drums, when Mark pulls out a solo, still in Blue and Green and obviously no guitar on the original.
Tension blows the roof.
Changeover down to Andy and Adrian, then Andy, Paul Grimaces - he knows what's coming. I've seen that look on his face once before, when the Early Birds did Chungas Revenge at the Lit and Phil - an unlikely closet rocker?
Adrian hits the hi-hat, this is new for me too. Suddenly Paul's Keith Jarrett, Zawinul, Corea, Hancock; all at once.
Who was playing drums for Miles at that time? Couldn't have given it more whack than Tilbrook.
The audience, mostly older than me, look shell-shocked.
Been beckoning Mark for a while to beast it up and what a time to do it!
It ends as it began, with Andy, but it's round three to the drummer.
Pat Metheny to close set one with some great interplay between guitar and trumpet, but any idea of maintaining silence was shot. My first trip to the Travellers Rest but it felt that, like the world in 69/70, Opus 4 would never be the same again.
The local knowledges were kept busy during the interval, launching Chinese Whispers: where are the Beeches Blue? Your Sister's Due?
Knackered and in shock, I think set two began with a Wayne Shorter piece though I missed the title and didn't recognise it. I wrote 'gutsy bass solo, drummer rises to the challenge, fours with the trumpet, the full splendour of his repertoire, but it's the leaders round'.
Sail Away from Harrell and I left during Shorters' Fe Fi Fo Fum, Mark starting to glance my way, his nose twitching.
I would have loved to stay to hear Paul take a round but, in a sense, he always takes every round. That's why the kids love him, they can mess-up - big time - knowing he'll plug the gap, make it sound deliberate and transform it into something brilliant. Maybe that's why the grownups like playing with him too.
I'd have loved to stay but I was done.
Steve T.

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