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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

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.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

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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