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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

17444 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 718 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Oct. 10).

From This Moment On ...

October

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: Lindsay Hannon + Eleanor Adams @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Note, this is a change to the previously advertised gig.
Sun 13: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 13: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A DUJS event. All welcome.

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).

Wed 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 16: Cath Stephens’ improvisation workshop @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 4:30-6:00pm. Collaborative group focusing on vocal improvisations.
Wed 16: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 16: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 17: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Olivia Cuttill Quintet @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 17: Moonlight Serenade Orchestra UK: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Phoenix Theatre, Blyth. 7:30pm.
Thu 17: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 17: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. Guests Jeremy McMurray (keys); Richie Emmerson (tenor sax); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Adrian Beadnell (bass). 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s, Crook. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Chet Set @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Pete Tanton & co.
Fri 18: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm (upstairs). A Hoodoo Blues dance & social event. £10.00. class & social (£10.00., £7.50., £5.00. social only). Michael Woods (country blues guitar) on stage 9:00pm.
Fri 18: East Coast Swing Band @ Hexham Abbey. 7:30pm. £9.00.
Fri 18: Ben Crosland Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 18: Durham University Jazz Society’s ‘High Standards’ @ Music Dept. Music Room, Divinity House, Palace Green, Durham University DH1 3RS. 8:009-30pm. Tel: 0191 334 1419. £7.00., £5.00.
Fri 18: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 19: Sat 19: Paula Jackman’s Jazz Masters @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 19: Howlin’ Mat @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Country blues guitar & vocals. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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

Tuesday, July 04, 2017

CD Review: Geoff Simkins' Trio - In a Quiet Way

Geoff Simkins (alto); Nikki Iles (piano); Dave Green (bass).
(Review by Lance).
Make Someone Happy - the opening track - did indeed make someone happy (me!) It swung from the outset. Wot no drummer? The track was halfway through before I noticed. Maybe it was because I was tapping my foot so much that a drummer would have been surplus to requirements. Not that this is a wham, bang, thank you ma'am belter. Far from it. After the exuberance of the opener, Earl Zindars' Elsa takes us into a more, reflective 3/4 mode. Elsa brings to mind Art Pepper's Diane and Simkins' playing hints at Pepper, Desmond and, perhaps, most of all Lee Konitz. Kenny Wheeler's Old Ballad is another beauty reminding us, as if we needed to be reminded, of what a sensitive and sympathetic player Nikki Iles is. If you can't make it with backing like Nikki gives here then sell your horn and drive taxis. Simkins isn't going to be driving taxis! Nor is Dave Green.
Green, a dear friend of the late Margaret Barnes, is, and always will be, top call bassman for sessions such as this and the proof of the pudding is in the cooking - regulo 7, occasionally 9.
Konitz' s Friend-Lee allows Simkins to make his allegiance clear. It jumps and all three do it justice.
Beija Flor, by Nelson Cavaquinho, in Portuguese means Hummingbird. Simkins recalls hearing it by Jim Hall and, he says, he always keeps Hall's solo in mind whenever he plays it.
Nobody Else But me, written by Kern and Hammerstein in 1946, somehow or other stayed off my radar until I heard it by the wonderful Cécile McLorin Salvant. Martin Waugh played it at the last Jazz Café jam and now here it is once more - don't go away again!
Another Zindars' tune - Sareen Jurer - goes from 3/4 to 4/4 and back again. His wife, Annie, who is Armenian, came up with the title. Written with Bill Evans in mind who better to have on piano than Iles?
Mooch Too Early, fiendishly moulds Bird's Moose the Mooche with Evans' Very Early. Simkins describes Josh Rutner's composition as "A white knuckle ride that we all felt a vague sense of satisfaction that we'd emerged relatively unscathed."
Delete 'relatively' you nailed it.
The final track is one that is the most meaningful for north-east readers and jazz guitar buffs anywhere. For DJC is a tribute to Dave Cliff.  Dave, one of the areas great jazz guitarists, subsequently went on to greater things down south. Simkins says, "I first met and played with Dave over thirty years ago and his musical integrity and skill has always been an inspiration to me.'
No argument there, let's hope Dave is okay despite not playing so regularly these days.
Lance.
Geoff Simkins' Trio - In a Quiet Way available on Symbol Records SR20170301.

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