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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15478 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 499 of them this year alone and, so far, 120 this month (May 27).

From This Moment On ...

May 2023

Wed 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 31: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 31: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 31: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

June
Thu 01: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 01: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations.
Thu 01: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 01: Jake Leg Jug Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 01: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 02: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: Joseph Carville Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 02: Claire Martin & Her Trio @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. £25.00., £20.00. Feat. Jim Mullen, Alex Garnett & Jeremy Brown.
Fri 02: Guy Davis + Michael Littlefield & Scott Taylor @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm. Blues double bill.
Fri 02: Anders Ingram @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. Country blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 03: Newcastle Record Fair @ Northumbria University, Newcastle NE8 8SB. 10:00am-3:00pm. Admission: £2.00.
Sat 03: Pedigree Jazz Band @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 03: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Sue Ferris. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 03: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 03: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Tuesday, May 02, 2017

Darlington Jazz Festival: Locomotive Rhythm & the Vocal Collective - Sunday April 30

Community Choir and Loco Wheels Show Jazz is on the Right Track.
(Review by David Gosling)
This double bill Darlington Jazz Festival event took place at The Friend Meeting House on Sunday afternoon to a packed audience – and stage.
The Vocal Collective, a Darlington based community choir, having only been in existence for 6 months turned up with forty or so of their members to perform this, only their second, gig. Led by Liz Shevells (piano) and Katie Hibbard (conductor) the ensemble soon steadied the nerves with a joyous and lively version of George Gershwin’s Summertime. If this opening number was apt given the beautiful day we had on Sunday the choir’s second number was even more so as they would be followed by Locomotive Rhythm who would pay homage to Darlington’s railway heritage. The choir launched themselves into Choo Choo Ch’boogie.
Goodnight Sweetheart brought a little doo wop into the repertoire before the Vocal Collective completed their set with three traditional into modern music medleys. The folk blues song Black is the Colour seamlessly blending into a Fleetwood Mac hit after a beautiful Siobhan solo. Cold Play then got into the act as they were mixed into the gospely Magic and they finished off with a mix of the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams and Adele’s Rolling in the Deep entitled Rolling in the Dreams.
A superb performance from a fledgling outfit which promises much more for the future and for me the stand out number was a Jim Papoulis song entitled Can you Hear? in which a delightful solo was delivered by Judith.
Locomotive Rhythm turned out to be a project for ‘Darlington railway heritage buff’ and drummer Graeme Robinson in which he teamed up with his old school pal, multi-instrumentalist and composer Phil Taylor to improvise music inspired by railways and Graeme’s newly cast railway wheel cymbals. The sight of Graeme’s drum kit was worth the entrance fee on its own.
Fittingly the first notes of the set came from the five specially cast steel, alloy and bronze loco wheels before Graeme launched into a five minute drum solo introduction to Loco Wheels.
References to Darlington’s railway heritage abounded in the song introductions as well as their titles. Stone Sleepers, Myers Flat Battery, Forty Foot Road, A DME Leaving Boro Station were tracks all paying homage to the town’s industrial past – I believe!
Myers Flat Battery featured Kevin Eland’s muted trumpet and brought back memories of the Miles Davis sound from his ‘electric’ era. For the most part the funky fusion sound was more reminiscent of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters band than as suggested by Jazz North East’s Paul Bream in his weekly ‘Jazz Alert’ communication that Locomotive Rhythm would be akin to the more blander of The Crusaders output.                                                                                         
I did, however, hear a little of The Crusaders in the track Forty Foot Road as Phil Taylor on keys, Graeme on his drums and loco wheels and some great sax work from Alex Baker brought the tune to life. And as if by magic a tune appeared later in the set that ended on the Crusaders riff for Put it Where You Want it to prove Paul Bream right about the likeness in sound but on this showing definitely not the blandness.
This band, Graeme Robinson - drums, Phil Taylor – keys, Kevin Eland – trumpet, Alex Baker – sax, Gavin Bell – bass and Chris Rutherford – guitar produced a great sound for the first outing for Locomotive Rhythm and this for me was most evident in Grey Horse a tune we were told was named after a pub at the end of a horse drawn carriage link to the railway in Darlington.
The finale saw all forty members of the Vocal Collective take the stage with Locomotive Rhythm to wow the audience with a song dedicated to an 1800’s social housing experiment called Hopetown – Built on a Dream. The wonderful music produced by the band, forty voices and the loco wheels was a fitting tribute to, not only Darlington’s railway heritage, but also the vibrant jazz scene that thrives in the town today.
David Gosling,
Cumbria.

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