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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 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

17444 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 718 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Oct. 10).

From This Moment On ...

October

Sat 12: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Michael Woods @ Victoria Tunnel, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv.). Country blues guitar & vocals.
Sat 12: Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.28, £11.16, £9.04. A two-track recording launch gig.
Sat 12: Stuart Turner @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rockabilly, rhythm & blues etc. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 12: Lapwing Jazz Trio @ The Ship Inn, Low Newton. 8:00pm. Free. New trio: Paula Whitty, Richard Herdman, Jude Murphy.

Sun 13: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Emma Wilson @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 13: Catfish Keith @ The Cluny. 7:00pm. Country blues.
Sun 13: Cath Stephens & Paul Grainger @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Stephens & Grainger, one third of a triple bill.
Sun 13: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 14: Black is the Color of My Voice @ Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by Nina Simone, performed by Nicholle Cherrie.

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano), Paul Grainger (double bass), Bailey Rudd (drums).

Wed 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 16: Cath Stephens’ improvisation workshop @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 4:30-6:00pm. Collaborative group focusing on vocal improvisations.
Wed 16: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 16: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 17: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Olivia Cuttill Quintet @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 17: Moonlight Serenade Orchestra UK: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Phoenix Theatre, Blyth. 7:30pm.
Thu 17: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 17: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. Guests Jeremy McMurray (keys); Richie Emmerson (tenor sax); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Adrian Beadnell (bass). 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s, Crook. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Chet Set @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Pete Tanton & co.
Fri 18: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm (upstairs). A Hoodoo Blues dance & social event. £10.00. class & social (£10.00., £7.50., £5.00. social only). Michael Woods (country blues guitar) on stage 9:00pm.
Fri 18: East Coast Swing Band @ Hexham Abbey. 7:30pm. £9.00.
Fri 18: Ben Crosland Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 18: Durham University Jazz Society’s ‘High Standards’ @ Music Dept. Music Room, Divinity House, Palace Green, Durham University DH1 3RS. 8:009:30pm. Tel: 0191 334 1419. £7.00., £5.00.
Fri 18: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. 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, October 29, 2016

Tony Joe White @Sage Gateshead October 28

Tony Joe White – vocal, guitar, harmonica. Drummer unknown.
(Review by Steve T)
I had it in my head that Tony Joe White recorded at Muscle Shoals, not that it would have made any difference to me, but the legendary studio was, with Memphis and Nashville, part of that southern triangle, the melting pot at the intersection between black and white music and culture which created such legendary, important, and sometimes fantastic music.
I must have been going to lots of Jazz gigs because I thought I could just turn up on the night and choose my seat. Luckily, I checked earlier in the week to find my choice limited to five tickets behind the stage on level two or eleven standing on level three.

I should have expected it; he’s a legend, an icon, the sort of artist who sells out Sage One on Saturday night at the Americana Festival. Like his peers, but even more so, he’s tough to pigeon-hole: country, blues, rock and roll, soul, funk, pop. Just prefix any or all of the above with ‘swamp’.
Popped in for the support, Jack Broadbent, who looked the part in big hair, big beard, cowboy boots and two big guitars that FDT would sell his dad for, but betrayed by local accent and charisma.
He turned one on its side to the delight of the full house. Some Delta Blues, he claimed, and played with a hip flask, though I was thinking his ancestors would have been at the other end of the whip, and very few have successfully breached the cultural divide (except in Jazz). The big question would be how well the headliner managed.
'Some Little Feat' and the audience were ecstatic. One lady asked who they are, and somebody asked her if she was in the right place. I wondered whether I was in the right place until he dedicated it to Lowell George, the ex-Mother who created Little Feat, and St Frank, who created the Mothers.
Big rock star entrance in hat, harmonica attachment, cowboy boots and, once seated, shades. I imagined some cultural discourse which had him as Neil Young for the thinking man or Bob Dylan for people who wanted to dig deeper.      
After the first song, he was joined by a drummer and I was troubled by the absence of any bass, particularly as the drummer seemed so pedestrian. The balance was only really redressed when his beaten up Fender Strat went into overdrive, his playing rough and raw, charged with energy and some serious feedback, wah wah and other effects. Thankfully, harmonica was kept to a minimum. His voice was low and gruff and, particularly when talking in his southern drawl, almost inaudible, so apologies to the drummer for failing to catch his name.
Couldn’t really make out any of the songs but vaguely recognised his biggest hit Polk Salad Annie and Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll, but that really wasn’t the point. Gradually the relentless, repetitive drumming, the course guitar, his fingers never far up the neck, his deep monotone voice, and the sheer power of the whole had a hypnotic effect which put huge grins on the faces of middle-aged men who should have grown up by now.
Georgia somebody shouted as he returned for an encore, referring to the rainy night of his most famous song, which presumably pays the bills, but in hindsight he was never going to play.
Did he successfully cross the cultural divide still so divisive when he started out in the late sixties and still unresolved today? Between black and white, underdog and privileged, oppressed and oppressor, outsider and insider, art and populism. The asking of the question is perhaps more important than the answer. 
Was mine one of the middle-aged faces with a perpetual grin? I definitely had my move on, that’s usual, but I didn’t make last lattes at the Jazz Caff.

Steve H.

1 comment :

Steven T said...

Apparently the Sage had a number of people wanting their money back because he was drunk. I couldn't possibly comment though he drank water during the gig and only turned it into wine for the encore.
It's ironic how the Gallagher Brothers and the like boast about their 'rock and roll' credentials and here's the genuine article, with warts to prove it, and people still aren't happy.

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