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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

17328 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 612 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (Sept. 5).

From This Moment On ...

September

Tue 10: ???

Wed 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 11: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 11: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 11: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 12: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 12: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:30pm. £4.00. ‘A Great Day in Harlem’.
Thu 12: The Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Pete Tanton & co.
Thu 12: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Donna Hewitt, Bill Watson, Dave Archbold, Adrian Beadnell, Mark Hawkins.

Fri 13: Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Two pianos, two pianists! SOLD OUT!
Fri 13: Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Dilutey Juice @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.00. adv..
Fri 13: Ray Stubbs R & B All-stars @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Classic blues.

Sat 14: Jeff Barnhart’s Silent Film Fest @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 14: Customs House Big Band w. Ruth Lambert @ St Paul’s Centre, St Paul’s Gardens, Spennymoor DL16 7LR. 7:00pm (6:45pm doors). Tickets £10.00. from the venue or tel: 01388 813404. A ‘BYOB’ event.
Sat 14: Emma Wilson @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00. Acoustic blues.
Sat 14: Rat Pack - Swingin’ at the Sands @ Billingham Forum. 7:30pm.

Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Panharmonia @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Swing Manouche @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: John Hallam with the James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert!

Sunday, August 06, 2017

Francis Tulip Quartet: Monk’s Mood @ The Globe - August 5

Francis Tulip (guitar), Joel Brown (piano), Michael Dunlop (bass) & Matthew MacKellar (drums)
(Review by Russell/photos courtesy of Steve T)
Along the road at Times Square (NCL not NYC) the Manic Street Preachers pitched a tent. Here at the Globe, the Jazz Co-op was having a busy old time. Day one of a two-day weekend workshop at the Railway Street premises utilised the ground floor bar and first-floor music room. As participants departed at the end of an informative first day, in walked a Tulip.
The Francis Tulip Quartet walked in…set-up, tune-up, run through, ready to go. The FTQ departed, as does any self-respecting band, in search of that pre-gig essential, fast food. Meanwhile, the FTQ fan club arrived. The hordes arrived just in time (there’s a tune in there somewhere) to see the last Red Kite depart for the sanctuary of Derwent Valley. Yes, Wylam Brewery’s ever-popular beer was no more. An Angel (another in Wylam’s portfolio) came to the rescue. Front row seats bagged (set at a distance from the stage), lights dimmed, the Globe was in a Monk’s Mood.
In Walked Bud (with Francis, Joel, Michael and Matt) for starters, Let’s Call This and its swing-time feel and Michael Dunlop’s walking bass line, this was great stuff! Principal soloists, at least initially, Francis Tulip, guitar, and Joel Brown, piano, laid-down amazing solos which drew huge applause – ‘yeah!’, ‘whoo!’ and the like. Such was the level of applause that Francis Tulip’s name checks were largely inaudible. But hey, the audience knew who they were! Round Midnight took it down before a first drum feature for Matt MacKellar on Jackie-ing. MM’s intro developed into a tune-long master class with the boys in the band punctuating as and when. Most definitely an ‘I was there’ moment.

Blue Monk with MacKellar’s restrained Blakey-like drive, Michael Dunlop’s assured ‘in-the-pocket’ time, Tulip and Brown in a real Thelonius mood, followed by a Monk set-closer, Green Chimneys. A first set covering TS Monk’s library spanning the Blue Note, Prestige and Riverside years, notes scribbled in pad read ‘amazing!’. And so it was.

The bar was busy. Another Angel, thank you. As the second set began the first of the tent dwellers in Times Square hurried past the Globe, their gig done. One or two stopped momentarily, peering through the window, curious, no doubt wondering who was performing at this crowded Jazz Co-op gig. Francis Tulip soared 500 Hundred Miles High with another ‘beyond-his-years’ solo. Think just how good FT will be when he learns how to play! Seriously, 500 gigs later, who knows what Tulip will be capable of? A Latin feel to I’ll Remember April, Wayne Shorter’s Beauty and the Beast with bassist Dunlop utilising a couple of pedals, the FTQ demonstrated it’s more than a Monk machine. Stella by Starlight, Footprints with pianist Joel Brown making his mark, closely followed by Tulip’s stratospheric post-bop guitar playing, this debut gig by the Francis Tulip Quartet exceeded every expectation and more. To close, Tulip announced Ray Noble’s Cherokee, suggesting they would play it at a lick. Good! exclaimed your correspondent. And so they did with Matt MacKellar’s hi-hat working overtime and Joel Brown almost running out of fingers! More! More! Let’s go out on Afro Blue. Gig of the Year? It’s a contender.                          

Russell.

1 comment :

Steve T said...

If you missed it, or want to do it all again, they're playing at Tutsters bar in Bishop Auckland on thurday 10th - that's this thurday.
They're under the name The Tulip Connection but it's the same band, still playing Jazz, but perhaps a tad rockier at times.

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