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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Ballet Black: Storyville - Northern Stage. October 11

(Review by Russell)
Some fifteen years ago Cassa Pancho founded Ballet Black. As Artistic Director, Pancho has nurtured the development of the London-based dance troupe, transforming it into the international touring company that it is today. Ballet Black’s dancers of black and Asian descent embrace the classical tradition, fusing it with contemporary, abstract forms. The company is currently touring Britain and, thankfully, a first visit to Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne, was on the itinerary.
Last night’s performance (there is a second performance tonight, Wednesday 12 October) in Stage One at Northern Stage comprised three parts; two new pieces and a revival of the critically acclaimed Storyville. Set in 1920s New Orleans, Christopher Hampson’s tale of Nola, a wide-eyed farm girl lured by the bright lights of the Big Easy, examines enduring themes – ambition, love, the high-life, ill-advised dalliances with low-life characters. Set to the music of Kurt Weill (Walter Huston is heard singing Ulysses Africanus (Lost in the Stars), Eniko Szilagyi’s recordings, in French, of Je ne’taime pas and J’attends un navire evoke the period, and selections from the London Sinfonietta’s recording of  Threepenny Opera), Cira Robinson (Nola) gave a spell-binding performance of the naïve country girl who will, ultimately, be taken from us in a Mahogany Hall-swirling vortex of dollars and dimes, bar flies and bourbon, and Jelly Roll jazz.

Nola casts aside Sailor (Damien Johnson) in favour of Lulu White’s promises of jewels, liquor and good times. Sayaka Ichikawa (Lulu) is Nola’s nemesis; we know the outcome, we implore Nola to take a different path. Nola dances/drinks herself into oblivion. Ballet Black’s eight-strong troupe deservedly won several curtain calls.

Earlier, Cristaux (Arthur Pita, choreography) glittered as a duet piece featuring Robinson and Mthuthuzeli November dancing to an insistent clockwork jewelry box chiming theme by composer Steve Reich. South African November joined the company in 2015 and this energetic performance enthralled Newcastle’s informed dance audience. A second newly devised work – To Begin, Begin (Christopher Marney, choreography) – called upon six of the company’s dancers to interpret the dance maker’s vision. The score (composer Dustin O’Halloran) punctuated the troupe’s constantly shifting movements across the Stage One minimalist set.
Russell.
Ballet Black: Cira Robinson, Sayaka Ichikawa, Isabela Coracy, Marie-Astrid Mence, Damien Johnson, José Alves, Mthuthuzeli November, Jacob Wye                           

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