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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sun 03: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:30pm. £7.50.
Sun 03: The Central Bar Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. The Central Bar Quartet plays Lou Donaldson’s Gravy Train. Featuring Jamie Toms.
Sun 03: Revolutionaires @ The Water House, North Road, Durham. 4:00pm. Rock 'n' roll excellence! Line-up inc. Pete Tanton.
Sun 03: Paul Skerritt @ Smith’s Arms, Carlton, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:00pm.
Sun 03: Johnny Hunter Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 03: Jam session @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.

Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 04: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ People’s Kitchen, Bath Lane, Newcastle. From 5:30pm. On-street gig supporting the work of the People’s Kitchen charity. Wrap up warm! Donate!
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio w Lindsay Hannon @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Mon 04: Durham University Jazz Orchestra + Durham University Big Band @ Durham Castle DH1 3RW. 8:30pm. £6.00.; £5.00. concs; £4.00. DSM. ‘Jazzy Christmas’.

Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ All Saints Church, Cleadon. 7:00pm. Concert in the church hall. BYOB.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Sid White. The best free show in town!

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Free. Note later start time, concert performance (open to the public).
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay, Newcastle. 12 noon - 4:00pm. £26.00 (inc 3-course meal in in St Mary's Lighthouse Suite). SOLD OUT!
Thu 07: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 07: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.Donations. Feat. Mark Sanders. CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00. Downstairs.
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Woodland Village Hall, Bishop Auckland. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Fri 08: Sleep Suppressor + Redwell @ Head of Steam, Neville St., Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv); £5.00. student.
Fri 08: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert's Church, Shadforth, Co. Durham.
Fri 08: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £8.00.

Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Abbie Finn Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Monday, June 26, 2017

Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band @ Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester - June 25

(Review by Russell).
They flew 6000 miles to play two concerts. A capacity audience at this first concert greeted this Los Angeles supergroup with wild applause, all before a note was played. The Wigan International Jazz Festival sought the services of this greatest of big bands for some fifteen years and now, finally, we were about to hear the band live, in concert. Festival Director Ian Darrington introduced the band in simple fashion; Welcome the best big band on the planet.
Cameras flashed as the Big Phat Band strolled onto the stage, the best big band on the planet. MD Gordon Goodwin acknowledged an ecstatic audience as the band’s British premiere began right on time. The eighteen-piece Big Phat Band, comprising of Los Angeles’ A-list film and recording studio session musicians, exuded a casual air, their collective CV simply amazing. Boy, this lot could play!
The ensemble cookin’, the first of a raft of stellar soloists, sauntered to the front of the stage. Tenor saxophonist Brian Scanlon blew into a mic, and blew and blew. This elicited the first of innumerable bursts of applause. Fellow tenor man Kevin Garren followed…anything you can do. Sal Lozano – a Hollywood name, for sure! – tore it up on alto and soprano, and later would feature on a legendary number playing clarinet. Tower of Power energy, a dancing samba, a swinging rhythm section, the Big Phat Band reigns supreme. Goodwin introduced several new numbers, standing in front of the band, moving to a Yamaha grand, then a Yamaha Motif XS8, then out front once more. 

Trombones often take a back seat, not with this band! MD Goodwin brought all four ’bone man out front – Andy Martin, Charlie Morillas, Francisco Torres and bass trombone Craig Gosnell – to joust in a rapid-fire slide exchange. Up top, the trumpet section was having a ball. Goodwin teased the audience: Okay Wayne Bergeron, right? No! Bergeron was nowhere to be seen. Depping for the legendary trumpet ace (‘depping’ is an inadequate term!) on these British dates was recent Royal Academy graduate,  all of twenty-three years of age, Louis Dowdeswell. MD Goodwin could not have been more effusive in praising Dowdeswell for taking on the lead trumpet role, and, let it be known, nailing it. The RNCM audience showed its appreciation, the applause deafening.

Sunset and Vine…evocative isn’t it? Well, Goodwin isn’t enamoured of this particular Los Angeles’ interstate. He’s written a new tune and called it…Sunset and Vine. For the listener, another superb big band chart. The rhythm section, a section to die for, indeed all sections, were all over it. Jamey Tate, reading the parts, smiling, is what you could call a ‘proper’ drummer. One imagines the scene out in LA boasts such talents in numbers. Well, it was a privilege to hear this particular talent. Joey DeLeon, the other half of the percussion unit, is sure to be in demand out on the West Coast. Joey and Jamey were simply outstanding. A new favourite bass player (as of yesterday!) is Kevin Axt. A bass guitarist of taste and facility, equally adept as a double bass player.

Rhapsody in Blue. An old warhorse to some, to Gordon Goodwin a masterpiece, in his opinion, Mr George Gershwin the greatest composer of them all. Sal Lozano’s clarinet soared into the blue sky over LA/Manchester. Goodwin’s interpretation of this timeless composition engendered vociferous applause. The audience couldn’t be more animated, could it?

Hunting Wabbits. Never in a million years did your reviewer think this number would be heard live, right here in our own backyard. June 25, 2017, it happened. The Royal Northern College of Music’s auditorium was packed to the rafters, tonight’s (Monday 26) second performance will, no doubt, be equally thrilling. Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band had one last tune for us. Goodwin suggested he and the band knew one more tune. The Jazz Police. Can you believe it,

 The Jazz Police? Live, right here, on our doorstep! Exhilarating, and, memorably, guitarist Andrew Synowiec tearing it up.  Please note, this evening’s concert sold out several months ago. If you want to catch the band live, next stop Los Angeles. So, this RNCM gig was a good ’un? Aye, not bad, ‘canny good’, as we say here in the north east of England, the land of Bebop Spoken Here.              
Russell.
Gordon Goodwin (MD, piano & tenor sax), Louis Dowdeswell, Bob Summers, Dan Savant, Willie Murillo (trumpets); Brain Scanlon (tenor sax & flute), Jeff Driskill (tenor sax & flute), Sal Lozano (alto sax, soprano sax, flute & clarinet), Kevin Garren (tenor sax & flute), Jay Mason (baritone sax, bass clarinet & flute); Andy Martin, Charlie Morillas, Francisco Torres, Craig Gosnell, (trombones); Andrew Synowiec (guitar); Kevin Axt (double bass & bass guitar); Jamey Tate (drums); Joey DeLeon (percussion)

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