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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

17487 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 761 of them this year alone and, so far, 66 this month (Oct. 30).

From This Moment On ...

November

Fri 01: Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party @ The Village Hotel, North Tyneside. 12 noon. Day 1/3. SOLD OUT!
Fri 01: Will Howard Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 01: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 01: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 01: Louis, Louis, Louis @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.

Sat 02: Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party @ The Village Hotel, North Tyneside. 12 noon. Day 2/3. SOLD OUT!
Sat 02: Red Stripe @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 02: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. ‘Bebop Language by Barry Harris.’. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 02: Guy Davis @ The Witham, 3 Horse Market, Barnard Castle, DL12 8LY. &:30pm. £18-£20. Legendary American blues artist.
Sat 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 03: Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party @ The Village Hotel, North Tyneside. 12 noon. Day 3/3. SOLD OUT!
Sun 03: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm (12:30pm doors). £7.50.
Sun 03: Dean Stockdale Trio @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Dean Stockdale, Mick Shoulder, John Bradford.
Sun 03: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 03: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free. Rescheduled date from Sunday 27 October.
Sun 03: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 03: Leeway @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 03: Hi Res Heart @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Pyne/Archer/Keefe/Bardon. JNE.

Mon 04: Enrico Tomasso/Cia Tomasso/Curtis Volp @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Square, Whitley Road, Palmersville, Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1.00pm. Free.
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30-8:30pm. Free.

Tue 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval NE25 0AT. 12:30pm. £12.00. ‘Guy Fawkes Steak & Ale Pie & Pea Lunch’. To book tel: 0191 237 3697.
Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 06: The Horne Section’s Hit Show @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 07: Jazz Appreciation North East/Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘George - named musicians, vocalists & composers (Chisholm, Duke, Lewis, Shearing, Benson, Melly, Gershwin et al)’.
Thu 07: Aki Remally: The Gil Scott-Heron Songbook @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Remally (guitar, vocals); Fraser Urquhart (piano); Tom Wilkinson (bass); Max Popp (drums).
Thu 07: Rat Pack Live @ Whitley Bay Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free.

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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