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Bebop Spoken There

Kelly Sill: "Just because everyone is playing through the changes in the same time doesn't mean they're actually playing together" - (JazzTimes March/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

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.

Sat 08: Me Lost Me + Ceitidh Mac + Heather Ferrier @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 7:30pm. JNE.
Sat 08: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED from last week (Sat 01).
Sat 08: Robbie Reay @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Acoustic blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 08: Anth Purdy @ Mr Tighe's, Bebside, Northumberland. 8:30pm.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

The Gala Big Band @ St. Cuthbert’s Parish Centre, Crook. June 9.

(Review by Jerry E [Apologies again: I do not have a full list of the musicians for tonight] )
After The Early Bird Band, Crook welcomed back the Gala Big Band (or a slightly slimmed version of it – slim enough to photograph without going panoramic!) for a familiar and thoroughly enjoyable set consisting of 9 tunes with a solo piano “interlude” by the MD towards the end of the evening.
The Power of Love opened proceedings with the full-blast band lifting the rafters of the old school-room which now houses the Parish Centre. For health and safety reasons it’s just as well this was the “slimmed” band! The Coast, an Edis original in bossa nova style (jointly inspired by Jobim and Tynemouth) lowered the volume but not the tone!
Embraceable You, more dance-band than bossa but equally melodic, featured Steve Williams (one of the few names I did catch) on saxophone. Googling that title proved pleasantly distracting – listening to Billie Holiday on YouTube and, from another web page, trying to visualise an early Broadway performance: music by George, lyrics by Ira, choreography by Fred Astaire and singing and dancing by Ginger Rogers in her prime. Was that a Golden Age?
Next was Catch as Catch Can which I have described elsewhere as frenetic though frenzied or frantic might equally apply such is its pace and complexity. Suffice to say the band wrestled it into submission!
When All Is Said and Done calmed the mood and showed why members of Jambone (the youth band fronted by Edis) decided, by way of an acronym, that this should be dubbed “way sad”.
The band’s drummer, Alex Kennedy (caught that name too!) then provided vocals on Moondance while the band played his own arrangement of the music. There being a percussionist available tonight, Crook missed out on the rarely witnessed sight of Edis on the drums but I think even he might concede that it sounded better that way!
The band then took a breather while Edis performed the 1920’s popular song later “owned” by Satchmo, When You’re Smiling. Presumably his own arrangement – it was certainly not as I have heard the song before and was typical of his dissection/exploration on his CD’s of familiar tunes such as Country Gardens, Skye Boat Song, Greensleves and Bring Me Sunshine. Here, in contrast to the band’s opening number, you could hear a pin drop.
Out came the spangly bowlers in the trumpet section for Moonlight Serenade then it was Ellington’s moody Come Sunday featuring another of the saxes (sorry, missed that one!) and then testing the rafters again with One O’Clock Jump. All thoroughly enjoyable stuff.
After the applause, Roger, one of the centre’s organisers, thanked and praised Paul Edis for his work bringing jazz to venues such as Crook, Ushaw, The Gala, The Lit & Phil, so that people can enjoy live music. I wholeheartedly endorse all that and would add my own two penn’orth: his achievement bringing people the opportunity to play jazz (like this community band, like Early Bird, Jazz Attack and Jambone) is so important to the future enjoyment of those audiences and to the flourishing of jazz in the region.
Jerry

1 comment :

Steve T said...

Both bands sounding great.

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