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Bebop Spoken There

Orrin Evans: “Now, getting a teaching spot is the new record deal”. (DownBeat, November, 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

17502 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 776 of them this year alone and, so far, 14 this month (Nov. 5).

From This Moment On ...

November

Sat 09: Moscow Drug Club @ Hamsterley Village Hall, Co. Durham DL13 3QF. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sat 09: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 10: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘second Sunday in the month’ residency.
Sun 10: Panharmonia @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £6.00.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Moscow Drug Club @ Lesbury Village Hall, nr. Alnwick NE66 3PP. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sun 10: SH#RP Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Graham Hardy’s Eclectic Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 12: Matthew Forster Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.
Tue 12: Phil’s Elastic Band @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Free, but ticketed, book online.

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: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 13: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: corto.alto @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 7:45pm (doors 7:00pm). £14.00. + bf.

Thu 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Faye MacCalman & John Pope @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 14: Student Performances @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 4:00pm. Inc. Olly Styles (saxophone).
Thu 14: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 14: John Stowell & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Top class US/UK guitar duo!
Thu 14: King Bees @ The Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Superb Chicago blues band. Note, Struggle Buggy will no longer be appearing.
Thu 14: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Jeremy McMurray (keys); Kevin Eland (trumpet); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Adrian Beadnell (bass).

Fri 15: Nicola Farnon Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 15: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 15: Tim Kliphuis Trio @ Morpeth Methodist Church, Morpeth NE61 1HU. 7:30pm. £18.00.; £3.00. student (over 18); Free 18 or under. A Morpeth Music Society event. Kliphuis (violin), Nigel Clark (guitar), Roy Percy (double bass).
Fri 15: Lindsay Hannon’s Blues Trio @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £12.00. + bf.
Fri 15: Groovetrain @ The Exchange 1856, North Shields. 7:00pm. £22.50. + bf. Groovetrain’s ‘Big Night Out’.

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

Saturday, June 11, 2016

When Charlie Met Sonny: Mark Toomey/Lewis Watson Quintet - Jazz Café. June 10.

Mark Toomey (alt); Lewis Watson (ten); Jeremy McMurray (keys); Peter Ayton (bs); Paul Smith (dms).
(Review by Lance/photos courtesy of Mike Tilley).
Lewis Watson could be likened to the Loch Ness Monster. Sightings are reported but rarely are they confirmed. Submerged as he is in the Jason Isaacs Band this is not surprising. Tonight, though, the Monster arose from his slumbers and unleashed a mighty roar. A roar that sent every saxophone player north of Plymouth Sound and south of John O'Groats reaching for their Jerry Bergonzi tutor books.
Well not everyone. Co-bandleader Toomey is the perfect foil for Watson. Charlie Parker, Cannonball his Gods - meeting the Rollins/Coltrane juggernaut with his own serpentine lines that made for the perfect match.
In the engine room, McMurray comped and soloed in his own inimitable style, Smith was in overdrive and Ayton on, was it a Fender upright?, bass provided the heartbeat. Together, the five combined to produce some fine post-bop modern jazz.
I recognised the opener but couldn't put a name to it. What's in a name anyway as Shakespeare once said, - or was it John Surman?  In Walked Bud kept us on 52nd St., Mark Time, the first of Toomey's toons, then A Weaver of Dreams. This latter tune featured Watson who began and ended the ballad with lengthy Rollins-like cadenzas.
The set ended with a blast On Green Dolphin Street.
Wayne Shorter's Footprints began with a bass intro before the horns took off. Toomey the more orthodox, Watson less so, extending the range of the tenor into sopranino territory! 
Another Toomey original, Rain is for Today would have been deemed appropriate by anyone peering outside past the Bordello Red drapes, as the backdrop was described by our man JC who obviously knows a thing or two about these matters. Whatever, it was a good number as the altoists compositions invariably are.
Toomey's ballad feature, One Time There, was also one of his own. An enigmatic title for a melancholic piece that reminded me in places of Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.
Joe Henderson's Recorda Me ended my evening as I had a train to catch and for once I caught it!
Great gig. 
The band can be heard again at the Opus 4 Jazz Club in the Traveller's Rest, Darlington on July 15.
Lance.

6 comments :

Pam Young (on f/b) said...

Excellent review Lance great night

Francis Tulip (on f/b). said...

Great concert! I believe 'Sonnymoon for two' was the opener?

Patti said...

Oh yes - a fabulous gig ...... just a pity that the footie fans had booked all the cabs for after the concert was due to end, so I had to leave early ...... but another stonking night at the Jazz Caff!

Steven T. said...

All you missed Lance - I say all - was described as a Bebop Warhorse I know as Allens Alley from Miles and Tadd Dameron Paris 49 but I know it has a more famous title I can't remember but I'm sure you will, and an encore of Softly. Great night.

Lance said...

Dam(eron)! I wish I'd stayed a Tadd longer. I'd have sooner missed my train than miss that. A.K.A. 'Wee'. Allen's Alley featured Allen Eager on a Coleman Hawkins recording and Eager was actually part of the Bebop Spoken Here logo in the blog's early days. Wee recorded by The Quintet of the Year at Massey Hall in Canada (Bird, Diz, Bud, Mingus, Roach in 1953).

Steven T. said...

Yea, I didn't like to say but it was kinda special; and I'd forgotten it's on Quintet of the Year/ Massey Hall - surely the greatest band ever.
Once left a wedding night only to find out a week later that Bobby Womack turned up and played for 90 mins - it took about a week to get over it but I felt much better after he played Glastonbury the following year and was terrible.

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