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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise 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.

Friday, February 03, 2017

Stuart Davies & The New Standard @ The Empty Shop, Durham - February 2

Stuart Davies (Guitars, Lead Vocals), Alex Saxon (Alto Sax, Flute, Vocals), Liam Fender (Keyboards, Vocals), Ian Paterson (Bass), Dave Lowery (Drums) + John Waugh (Tenor Sax). 
(Review by Steve T/Photo courtesy of Michael Fenwick).
A new year and the threat of some funk, soul and blues brought out a couple of legends from the Durham and the North East soulful past: big bro John T and middle Fen Michael, the nice one. If we lost a couple of tables worth at the interval who were after something Jazzier, this is the Empty Shop so there's ten more waiting to get in and another ten behind them.
Everything is Everything, by Donny Hathaway, most famous in this country for his duets with Roberta Flack (Where is the Love, Back Together Again), and the slap bass is laid down and the Hammond sound as good as any I've heard.
Star Turn from Harry Connick Jnr and it's clear this is a totally different set to anything we're used to. Jazzhe let the word hang, some solos he offered and often multiple and often extended and always effective.
The leader switched from Fender Telecaster to Gibson 335; serious guitars for a serious guitarist. Shakey percussion thing first with sax, then guitar, then both and it turned into Someday we'll all be Freerecorded by lots of people but I'm pretty sure written by Donny Hathaway, the leader's guitar playing making me think Benson did a version. Wisely he only sang the chorus, Hathaway being the best of that end of soulful singers, which includes Stevie Wonder, Michael Wycoff and Vernon Burch.
Some Herbie, I think from Headhunters, though I confess I don't know (or like) the album as well as I should.  Donald Fagan of Steely Dan fame, the leader at his most comfortable rocking it up on his guitar, followed by some Clapton but, as I've never liked anything by Sir Eric since Blind Faith, to these ears they're stretching it going into the break.
Normal services were resumed for the second set with Shake Everything You've Gotessentially a chant from key JB and P Funk Horny Horn Maceo Parker, some great sax from alto and tenor and I kept thinking they should do some Average White Band. It broke down to lines from the two horns before the kitchen sink was back in for a glorious finale.
More Harry Connick with Between Us, then back to what they do best with The Meters’ Sissy Strut, the leader taking on one of the great rhythm guitarists, Hammond, throughout the night, darting in and out to great effect.
A very good Rhodes electric piano sound and I thought we were in for Donny Hathaway’s most famous solo piece The Ghetto, but it turned out to be more Steely Dan. Far be it for me to pull down almost sacred cows but, there are bands I don't like but get why others do and bands I don't like and don't get why anybody does. I totally get why some people like Steely Dan, but not necessarily the people who typically like them, including those who listen to things like Donny Hathaway, Maceo and The Meters. I can only think of one other group who I understand why people like them, but depending on what else they listen to, and the Dan did it with comparatively no publicity.
An extended Rhodes intro and this time there's no doubt, anticipation building up brilliantly and just when it's about to kick in, a flippin' drum solo, as they say on Coronation Street. Eventually, we got there and even the audience participation almost worked, the men singing the Ghetto followed by the ladies talkin' bout the ghetto.
After this, an encore was inevitable and they didn't hang about. Senior T swiftly spotted Stormy Monday Blues, and there've been countless versions of this but I'm pretty sure T-Bone Walker, who did all the guitar showmanship stuff ahead of Chuck Berry and Hendrix, was first. I remember seeing Albert King do it, followed by Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, but I had to come out of John Lee Hooker to catch a train, so who knows?
By the end, the audience were in the palms of their hands and it sounded like a recording from a gig on the chitlin circuit. Despite my reservations about some song choices, undoubtedly a resounding triumph
Normal Jazz, albeit fusion, will resume on February 16 with a London-based band, The Dream Jazz Collective supported by Nintai - a Durham Uni Band.    

Steve T.

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