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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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
The 10: Classic Swing @ Carlisle Rugby Club, Warwick Rd., Carlisle. 8:30pm. £9.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: The Jazz Quartet + Stratosphonic @ Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £15.00. A Rotary Club of Hexham event. The Jazz Quartet (Jude Murphy & co), Stratosphonic (blues/rock). CANCELLED!
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 11: Mo Scott Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

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).

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

Sunday, April 09, 2017

GIJF Day 3: Tomasz Stańko Quartet - Sage Gateshead, April 2.

Tomasz Stańko (trumpet); Alexi Tuomarila (piano); Reuben Rogers (bass); Gerald Cleaver (drums)
(Review by Hugh C).
It is always nice to be thanked in public for something you have done, but even better, perhaps, for something you have not yet done.  This does, however, put the pressure on to deliver!
By midnight, on the evening of the gig, I was already in an anonymous Travelodge, way, way  South of the Tees Delta, en route to Devon's Jurassic coast to spend a week visiting elderly relatives (not in any way dinosaurs though!).
I have now returned to my laptop, and with Lance's agreement, deliver my somewhat tardy report.
The faithful few were gathered outside the East level 1 entrance to Sage 2 just before 7 pm.  By 7.10 there was still no sign of door staff or the doors opening.  On questioning an unsuspecting Sage staff member we were told the doors opened at 7.30.  “What pre-concert talk?” was the response to our question.  Your reporter was hoping to obtain some nuggets of inside information on the main man from the billed question and answer session with jazz journalist and critic Kevin Le Gendre.  Eventually it was established that due to flight delays, the session had been cancelled.  Oh, well – back to the bar!
At the appointed hour we returned to take our seats for the gig at 8pm.  The hall was packed to the rafters, well at least from my seat in the full hall on level 1, I could see heads peeping over the parapet on levels 2 and 3.  As is customary, the gig was introduced by Serious' John Cummings.  Gerald Cleaver (drums), Reuben Rogers (bass) and Alexi Tuomarila (piano) entered and took their place on stage.  We were then asked to welcome the man with “the nattiest headgear in jazz” - Tomasz Stańko.  After a short interval whilst he sorted out the connection of his bell microphone, Stańko, replete with a fine cloth cap, took his place on a high wooden chair, from which he did not depart during the entire set.  My companion, unfamiliar with the artist, remarked that he resembled a cross between Andy Capp and David Hockney

The format for the evening was a series of extended solos interspersed by ensemble work.  Slow, thoughtful, passages followed by the merest increase in tempo.  When not playing, Stańko sat on the chair, his eyes shielded from the lights by his cap, swaying gently to the groove.  The lightening pianism of Tuomarila during one of the faster passages drew the first solo applause of the evening, the second was in response to Stańko's stratospheric glissandi.  During a bass solo by Reuben Rogers, Stańko took the opportunity to methodically dissemble his trumpet and allow the “moisture” out. 

Twenty five minutes in, there was a short pause, charts were changed on stands and with the merest nod from the leader to the pianist, the second number commenced.  This set the form for the evening.  I cannot name the pieces played, as there were no announcements, other than occasional name-checks for the band members.   I thought I recognised some of the pieces played, which from the Sage listing are from the double album, Wisłlawa – dedicated to the celebrated poet, essayist and Nobel Laureate Wislława Symborska.  I am not familiar with this work, but listening through to the latest offering (December Avenue – review to follow...) it may also contain familiar phrases. 

The first set lasted 50 minutes.  After interval refreshment we reconvened for the second half.  The format was familiar.  The second set featured exquisite bowed bass from Rogers.  Of all the band members he was most obviously enjoying himself - to the extent that he would let out the occasional whoop.  Gerald Cleaver on drums would also smile occasionally.  During one extended drum solo, Rogers put down his bass and retired to the shadows behind the piano, perhaps to protect his eardrums.  Cool Finn, Alexi Tuomarila on piano remained impassive throughout and barely acknowledged applause for his solos.  Tomasz Stańko likewise, apart from the gentlest of chair dancing, and the occasional draft from his Badoit bottled water.

The second set ended after 45 minutes.  The enthusiastic audience would not let the band go without an encore, after which there was a respectful moment of silence to allow the last chord to die away, before the final applause.  I certainly enjoyed this gig and, so apparently did other audience members.  From overheard conversations on the way out it would seem some had travelled quite a way to be present.  This was, after all, the Quartet's only UK gig in their current tour.  The Tomasz Stańko quartet played the following evening in Ruesselsheim, Germany, pictured and reviewed here.
Hugh C.

1 comment :

Russell said...

The best review of this year's GIJF.

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