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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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Mar 26: Pop Jazz @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. 'Jazzified' tunes by the likes of Sylvester, Bowie, the Monkees etc., feat. Alan Law, David Gray, Richard Herdman & Jude Murphy.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

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: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Tuesday, May 02, 2017

Darlington Jazz Festival: Matt Roberts Sextet @ Voodoo Café - Friday April 28

Matt Roberts (trumpet), Leo Richardson (tenor saxophone), George Grant (alto saxophone), Will Barry (piano), Loz Garrett (double bass) & Dave Ingamells (drums)
(Review by Russell)
Matt Roberts returned once again to his home town to play a major part in this year’s Darlington Jazz Festival. The London based trumpeter brought a bunch of friends with him who just happen to be superb musicians to play Jazz After Dark, the now traditional opening night above the Voodoo Café on Skinnergate. Roberts’ previous appearances attracted a standing room-only audience and this concert proved to be no different.
 Festival regulars warmly greeted Roberts – handshakes, hugs, a catch-up – then at nine o’clock, the Matt Roberts Sextet took to the stage, the air of informality that is a key element to the success of Darlington Jazz Festival dispensing with superfluous introductions, and for the next two hours or so, the audience was in bop paradise! Six young men – average age thirty or thereabouts – were at the top of their game, the frontline horns killing from note one, likewise the rhythm section. A couple from Tadd Dameron for starters – The Squirrel and Good Bait – the horns laying down bop solo statements right out of ‘50s New York. To Roberts’ left Leo Richardson, an audacious, powder keg tenor saxophonist, to his right, George Grant, the reborn George Grant (last year’s Matt Roberts Sextet gig effectively made up the altoist’s mind to come out of premature self-imposed retirement), and, of course, bandleader Roberts himself treating the capacity audience to a trumpet masterclass by way of Fats Navarro, Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard.
Roberts revisited Cannonball Adderley’s Blue Note classic Somethin’ Else; Miles on Autumn Leaves and a Latin vibe on Love for Sale. Some gigs work, they just do. This festival date ticked all the boxes. Applause rang out time and again, the on-side audience cheering each and every sublime solo. Lee Morgan’s Tom Cat (an album recorded in the 1960s but not released until 1981) further stoked an already incendiary atmosphere with Roberts, Leo Richardson and the sextet’s newest member, the Royal Academy of Music graduate, pianist Will Barry, nailing it. Barry, a new name to some, has an impressive CV not long out of music school…NYJO, Mark Lockheart, Stan Sulzmann and most recently working with Jasper Høiby’s Fellow Creatures. Roberts couldn’t resist another Tom Cat cut – Twice Around. Roberts is an enthusiast, conveying his love of the music, expressing his admiration for the jazz tradition and his band mates, the sentiment no doubt reciprocal.

The interval flew by, just enough time for a Firebrick Brewery (Blaydon) refill from the downstairs’ bar. A seemingly unanimous verdict on a first set being nothing short of sensational. Second set, more of the same! In the engine room drummer Dave Ingamells reprised his memorable 2016 performance. The British jazz scene has innumerable top class drummers and Ingamells is right up there. Bassist Loz Garrett, perhaps another new name to some, worked like a Trojan – a hand-ringing performance, Loz G will become a familiar figure, be sure to check him out, he’s a busy young man having already worked with a list of stellar names including pianist-vocalist Lianne Carroll and Jamie Cullum.

Altoist George Grant dug deep on Milestones here at the Black Hawk, SF, sorry, Darlington’s Voodoo Café. Eyes closed, you could have been there, way back when. More of the same brilliant playing on Jimmy Heath’s Big P (for big brother Percy), not least Ingamell’s stupendous gig-closing solo. At something like twenty minutes to midnight this first evening of 2017’s Darlington Jazz Festival ended with sustained applause, another hour of the same wouldn’t have gone amiss, but hey, in a little over twelve hours, day two would dawn on this friendliest of jazz festivals. 
Russell.

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