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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!

Friday, August 11, 2017

Zoe Gilby & Andy Champion @ The Jazz Cafe - August 4

Zoe Gilby (vocals) & Andy Champion (double bass).
(Review by JC/Photos  from archives courtesy of Mike Tilley .)
I very rarely come into the centre of Newcastle at weekends except to go to a jazz gig, usually at the Jazz Cafe, as it is often a slightly alarming experience. In the old days jazz used be wild music associated with illicit substances and unbridled sexual licence and decent law abiding citizens would not be associated with it. Now it's the other way round with the Jazz Cafe being a haven of tranquillity and sensible shoes with the drugs and sex mostly just in the songs, while outside in the city centre the streets around are like something out of one of Fellini's films. Noisy gangs of young men and equally voluble groups of young women fill the pavements and the roads. No children or families, of course, or anyone over 30 - except for a solitary jazz fan in appropriate footwear heading swiftly for Pink Lane.
However, that doesn't mean that the music in the Cafe is not edgy and passionate - it is - and the Gilby-Champion duo were in great form. I've always been a big fan of this duo format because of the instinctive interplay between the two performers and the opportunity it gives Zoe Gilby to display her vocal improvisational skills and subtle lyrical interpretations of well-chosen songs and Andy Champion to foreground all the possibilities of his double bass.
I arrived a little after the first set began and the duo were well into Nice Work If You Can Get It. with Andy Champion in full flow on his bass solo. As I was enjoying the music I wasn't really keeping a list of the order of the songs but some of the ones that stood out were the Monk tunes, Straight, No Chaser, imbibed at a breakneck pace and Well, You Needn't sung with all the sharp, staccato twists and turns of Monk's piano-playing.
As well as including classic jazz songs, their repertoire has always been diverse and quirky picking out tracks that have something special about them by modern songwriters - Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Pink Floyd and more. Tonight it was particularly sinister versions of Nick Cave's Red Right Hand and Tom Waits Way Down in the Hole with the close interplay of voice and bass creating an edgy atmosphere. Maybe a disguised Donald Trump was in the audience as he pinched a quote from the Waits' song in his threats to North Korea a few days later 'He's got the fire and fury/at his command'. Kate Bush's mysterious Kashka from Baghdad, who seems to be having a good time behind closed doors, got the full range of Gilby's vocal ability and a beautiful rendition of Weaver of Dreams changed the pace. The duo's set included two new additions to the repertoire, both connected to the great but enigmatic singer, Nick Drake, who died at the early age of 26. The first was John Martyn's Solid Air, a song written for Drake, which seems to capture his troubled life. They finished with Drake's own Riverman and both Gilby and Champion gave it an intense treatment with Gilby really drawing out the emotion of the lyrics. This rounded off a fantastic gig with both performers demonstrating their dexterous versatility with a great selection of songs, changing tempo and tone, improvising and embellishing at will. All those lucky people who have tickets for their performance at Ilkley Jazz Festival are in for a treat!
Then it was  back out onto the streets, the whole scene looking even more surreal than before. A group of women emerged from a bar wearing pink bunny ears and one was carrying a life-size inflatable doll - was that her prize or her punishment? I went quickly on....
JC

1 comment :

Pam Young (on F/b) said...

Fabulous gig by two top drawer musicians wonderful material

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