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Bebop Spoken There

Kelly Sill: "Just because everyone is playing through the changes in the same time doesn't mean they're actually playing together" - (JazzTimes March/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

15260 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 279 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (March 29).

From This Moment On ...

April

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 04: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 04: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Bradley Johnston (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations. Feat. John Pope, Marie Shreer, John Garner.
Thu 06: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 06: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Note earlier start time.

Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 07: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 07: Finntet + Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.
Fri 07: TBA @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Blind Pig Blues Club.

Sat 08: Me Lost Me + Ceitidh Mac + Heather Ferrier @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 7:30pm. JNE.
Sat 08: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED from last week (Sat 01).
Sat 08: Robbie Reay @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Acoustic blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 08: Anth Purdy @ Mr Tighe's, Bebside, Northumberland. 8:30pm.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Paul Edis Trio (and a surprise visitor!) @ Blaydon Jazz Club. August 21

Paul Edis (piano), Andy Champion (double bass) & Russ Morgan (drums) + Roly Veitch (guitar)
(Review by Russell/photos courtesy of Roly Veitch.)
The Paul Edis Trio at Blaydon Jazz Club. A grand occasion. Club promoter Roly Veitch accepting an invitation to join the trio on a couple of numbers. A grand occasion. Jazz at the Black Bull. A grand occasion. Such was the exceptional quality of the music anyone could be forgiven for thinking they were at the legendary Newport Jazz Festival (clue).
Pianist Paul Edis took time out from last-minute preparations for the first Ushaw Durham Jazz Festival to play a trio engagement at one of Tyneside’s premier jazz clubs. Thirty plus years and the club continues to present the best in jazz. Paul Edis’ trio is the living embodiment of jazz at its best. An exceptionally talented pianist, composer and arranger, Edis’ current trio comprises bassist Andy Champion and drummer Russ Morgan. An on-going working relationship of many years’ standing with Champion – considered by some to be Britain’s finest double bass player – and a more recent association with Morgan marks out this line-up as the best in the business. Clifford Brown’s Joy Spring opened the programme setting the highest of standards and, without fear of contradiction, the trio maintained the level of performance throughout the evening.
Roly Veitch stepped up to play guitar on a couple of tunes including There Will Never Be  Another You (Kern & Hammerstein). Edis rightly insisted Vietch take centre stage rather than sit in the shadows as is his want! Classic small group jazz, the essence of Blaydon Jazz Club.

Edis’ Manic received its premiere. It was manic, exhilarating material. Taking it down, as a good set list should do, the trio gave a most sensitive reading of Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life. The up-tempo first set closer Daahoud capped an hour’s worth of five-star jazz.

The first set had been listened to intently by an honoured guest of Blaydon Jazz Club. As VIP status is concerned, few, if any, come close to the fame accorded George Wein. Jazz has few world-renowned figures, Mr Wein is unquestionably one of them. As founder and promoter of the Newport Jazz Festival (Rhode Island, NY), owner of  the Storyville jazz club (Boston), and the record label of the same name, Mr Wein called in at the Black Bull to hear the Paul Edis Trio. Having played with Bobby Hackett, Pee Wee Russell, Jo Jones and many others in the 1940s, in 1954, Mr Wein staged the first Newport Jazz Festival. It was to soon become the world’s greatest jazz festival. Say ‘Newport’ to a jazz fan and it's understood you’re talking about the jazz festival.
Mr Wein, gracious in his comments, said of Paul Edis: He’s great!  Mr Wein took time to meet well-wishers before heading off into the night. Andy Hudson (left), erstwhile eminent figure on the Tyneside jazz scene, arranged the visit of Mr Wein’s party to Blaydon Jazz Club and it would be great to see them return one day.

A refreshed Edis, Champion and Morgan began the second set with two compositions by none other than Roly Veitch. First, another premiere performance; Pentoid. The audience liked it and so did Edis. It’s highly likely we will hear it again. Joe Shufflebottom is one we’ve heard before. The Paul Edis Sextet has played this one on gigs. Beginning with a New Orleans-like shuffle set up by Russ Morgan, the melody has an irresistible forward momentum. Brass players have had a ball on this one! Tonight Edis fleetingly threw in a quote from Lullaby of Birdland. A favourite tune, perhaps we will hear it again at Ushaw. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Edelweiss is ostensibly an unlikely choice on a jazz gig, but it is just the sort of tune that jazz musicians can do something with. A classical grounding no doubt helps and Edis more than made something of it.

Polka Dots and Moon Beams (Van Heusen and Burke) enchanted, The Shadow of Your Smile (remembered from the film The Sandpiper) was sensitively played as a request and a third, and final, R. Veitch composition received it’s premiere; Rebop. The clue is kind of in the title, if you have to ask…And so we reached the last number of the evening. The hand-wringing tempo set on Cherokee told all – these guys are up there with the very best! Champion and Morgan played their socks off, so too Edis. Encore! Edis obliged, we went quietly on our way with Vernon Duke’s masterpiece I Can’t Get Started.                 
Photos.
Russell.

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