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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
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 01: Jambone @ Sage Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (book online). A YMP! event in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 01: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

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.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Southport Jazz Festival: Dixon, Edmonstone, Walker Quintet - February 5

Iain Dixon (sax), Malcolm Edmonstone (piano), Mike Walker (guitar), Steve Watts (bass), Steve Brown (drums).
(Review by Steve T)
Insomuch as I still have (or ever had) such things, Mike Walker is probably the nearest thing I have to a current day Jazz hero. Normally I'm perfectly happy to chat with the stars and generally make an a$$ of myself, but I kept a reverential distance from him.
The first piece had the formidable sax/guitar frontline playing the head, the rest equally strong and we were straight into a Mike Walker solo, then alto, some tasty piano dipping in and out throughout. Bass solo and fours with sax, guitar and piano, Walker changing the sound each time with his box of tricks.
I couldn't quite follow the introductions but I know there was something from Kenny Wheeler which may or may not have been, as Dixon doing the announcements said, something we're all in which, given Bexit/Trump was a recurring theme throughout the festival, was probably the sh!t. 
Ladieand/in Mercedes, All the Things You Are (I think), dazzling displays of virtuosity all round and drums prominent throughout. I Fall in Love Too Easily, some perfectly pitched brushwork behind lovely piano by Edmostone, depping for injured Les Chisnall and ending with extended lone sax before drums came clattering back in followed by piano and guitar, sax still blaring and my notes say it had transformed into (would you believe) All the Things you Are. Clearly starting to catch up with me.
Piano and drums dropped out leaving some extraordinary interplay between the remaining three when the sitting came back in and away it went again.
Passion Dance by Joe Henderson and I love it when the sax just goes and goes and keeps on going, the rest firing on all cylinders behind. A final, extended solo from Walker, a final dip into his box of tricks and the audience clearly in disbelief, after two days of amazing stuff, Iain Dixon almost unable to contain himself, though he must have heard it many times before. A Jazz- rock jam-out, which could have been Mahavishnu or Zappa at his Jazz-rockiest, though without the Hendrixesque excesses McLaughlin could be prone to on occasion.
Can you imagine missing that?, a lady in front said to me and I felt FDTs pain, more so than when he missed his tutors and more than when he missed his fellow students.
If you want to ensure your kids keep in touch with you, go to a Jazz Festival they'd give their right leg (retaining their playing arm) to be at.
Roll on next year.  
Steve T.

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