Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Jo Harrop & Paul Edis @ The Jazz Café - July 27

Jo Harrop (vocals) & Paul Edis (piano)
(Review by Russell/Photo courtesy of Mike Tilley)
The second of four engagements in her native north east for London based Jo Harrop. Newcastle’s Jazz Café reunited vocalist Harrop with pianist Paul Edis for a duo performance of classic material ranging from Ellington to Gershwin, Legrand to Mancini. Four gigs in a whirlwind three days (two in Newcastle, one in Durham and a first appearance at Ushaw) working with some of the region’s top flight musicians enabled Ms Harrop to reunite with family and friends making for an extended social occasion.
This Thursday evening gig at the Jazz Café attracted a select audience. It is rare to hear a pin drop at a gig but this was the exception with an attentive audience hanging on every note. Ellington’s All Too Soon opened the programme signalling two sets of classic material. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Let’s Fall in Love, an infallible ear and enviable range confirm Harrop as being in the top echelon of jazz singers. The carefree, the melancholic – Let’s Get Lost, Don’t Be That Way – pitch-perfect Harrop was a joy to listen to. The other half of this Jazz Café equation, Dr Paul Edis, knows how to coax a tune from the Pink Lane upright. Edis provided immaculate accompaniment and, on several occasions, crafted magical solos peppered with impressive stride patterns.      

Harrop and Edis hail from County Durham yet it wasn’t until they studied in London that their paths first crossed. Black Coffee, smoky, late night stuff, an uplifting Time After Time with Edis unable to resist quoting from Singin’ in the Rain, this was a duo working hand-in-glove, masterful musicians in our midst.

Two or three in the Jazz Café hadn’t previously heard Jo Harrop sing. To coin a phrase, they were       ‘gob-smacked’. Here in the north east we’re lucky to have a clutch of fabulous singers, Jo Harrop is most definitely one of them, albeit domiciled in London. Tea for Two, sentimental maybe, but given a superb treatment courtesy of Harrop and Edis, Too Darn Hot, Michel Legrand’s You Must Believe in Spring, this an evening of intimate jazz performance. April in Paris, Fine and Mellow, never mind a second set, how about a third? So good was it that one didn’t want it to end. Mean to Me, But Not For Me (superb), I Ain’t Got Nothing But the Blues.
The following afternoon the action moved to Durham's Gala Theatre (tickets sold out weeks ago). In due course be sure to read Brain Ebbatson’s Gala review of the duo right here at Bebop Spoken Here.            
Russell.

1 comment :

Patti D (on F/b) said...

This was a top class gig - and for me, the first time hearing Jo - like others, I was GOBSMACKED! What a voice - such control, and perfect nuanced phrasing - wonderful!

Blog Archive