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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Postage

16051 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1058 of them this year alone and, so far, 12 this month (Dec. 6).

From This Moment On ...

December

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Free. Note later start time, concert performance (open to the public).
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay, Newcastle. 12 noon - 4:00pm. £26.00 (inc 3-course meal in in St Mary's Lighthouse Suite). SOLD OUT!
Thu 07: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 07: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.Donations. Feat. Mark Sanders. CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00. Downstairs. CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club: Just Friends @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. Guest band night w. Richie Emmerson, Ian Bosworth, Dave Archbold, Ron Smith, Mark Hawkins. 9:00pm.

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle. 1:00pm. £7.00.
Fri 08: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Woodland Village Hall, Bishop Auckland. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Fri 08: Sleep Suppressor + Redwell @ Head of Steam, Neville St., Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv); £5.00. student.
Fri 08: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert's Church, Shadforth, Co. Durham.
Fri 08: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £8.00.

Sat 09: Prudhoe Community Band @ Central Station, Newcastle. 10:00am - 12 noon. Charity fundraiser.
Sat 09: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Skinnergate, Darlington. 1:00pm.
Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoe Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Alan Law, Paul Grainger & Abbie Finn @ Darlington Market, Market Square, Darlington. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘Christmas Market’ outdoor gig. Wrap up warm!
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Funk Soul Sista @ Stack, Seaburn. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Beth Clarke @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Whittingham Memorial Institute, Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00., £10.00.
Sun 10: Tele-Port @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Zhenya Strigalev.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Interim Final Recitals @ Newcastle University. Details TBC.

Tue 12: Stu Collingwood Organ Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £10.00.

Friday, December 09, 2016

Emma Fisk and James Birkett @ St Cuthberts Church, Shadforth, Durham - December 8.

Emma Fisk (violin), James Birkett (guitar).
(Review by Steve T)
This is the second Jazz concert I've been to here, courtesy of the Lawrence mother, Allison Fenton, also vicar of the parish. It coincided with a spectacular Christmas Tree Festival, the church lined with nineteen full-size trees decorated in various themes by an assortment of local organisations.
Emma and James are two-quarters of Gypsy Jazz outfit Hot Club du Nord and this duo is something of a spin-off, stepping back a generation presenting the music of  Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti which was so influential on Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, highlighted by the ever charismatic Ms Fisk, who has taken on the role of Jazz historian and educator, setting the scene for each 'tune', observing that Sunshine was recorded the day before Django’s seventeenth [birthday].
This part of Jazz history is largely a mystery to me and I guess many others and I think this is the point and the purpose of the duo, so I'm probably the target audience. 
We also got a snippet of violin tuition introducing It's Only a Paper Moon, a piece which featured some scorching interplay between the two, as did Pardon me Pretty Baby with Emmas only plucking [pizzicato] of the evening bringing the first set spectacularly to a close.  
It being a church, and a Jazz gig (though I doubt if many are regulars at Jazz events), the sell-out audience was largely at the senior end so were more likely to recognise things like I Can't Give You Anything But Love and Lady be Good in amongst originals by a composer with a penchant for strange titles like Kicking the Cat and Black and Blue Bottom.
We were spoilt by a world premiere of Dr Birkett’s Eddie’s Lament, a beautiful tribute to an artist who, we learned. died in his early thirties.
Perhaps because we are less accustomed to hearing a single violin, you can see people falling in love with Emma’s playing, no more so than on the beautiful Someone to Watch Over Me, followed by a stroke of genius with Oh Christmas Tree, which we were told they rehearsed in the vestry. Surrounded by Christmas Trees it should have been a moment in It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on Sherburn Roada reminder of how both music and Christmas can be magical.
Anybody who is familiar with them will know what I'm writing about and anybody who isn't should familiarise themselves at the earliest opportunity.
You can see James at Blaydon on the eighteenth, then both (with a pile of other stuff) at a charity bash at Caedmon Hall in Gateshead on the twentieth, and Hot Club du Nord at the Gala lunchtime session in Durham on the thirteenth of Jan and in March at the Caff.
Steve T.

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