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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise 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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio + Abbie Finn @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

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.

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Geoff Eales @ The Maltings Jazz Weekend - October 14

Geoff Eales (piano)
(Review by Russell)
Lunchtime Saturday, the rain just about holding off on the second day of the inaugural Maltings’ ‘Jazz Weekend’. Berwick upon Tweed bustled as tourists mingled with locals out shopping, bed and breakfasts advertising ‘no vacancies’, the YHA on Dewar’s Lane doing good business.  
At two o’clock a near capacity Henry Travers Studio audience set off on a whirlwind tour of jazz piano from A to Z through one hundred years and more of the recorded history of the music. An almost impossible task, but if anyone could do it, Geoff Eales was the man. Billed simply as ‘The History of Jazz Piano’ Eales adopted the maxim ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. From Scott Joplin to Geoff Eales, and several superstar pianists in between, the chronology was laid out before us.
Ragtime Scott Joplin – Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer – played by Geoff Eales at the Maltings’ Steinway piano – not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon! Eales introduced each piece to, one suspects, an audience more than familiar with both pianists and tunes performed. Jelly Roll Morton (Eales) playing Maple Leaf Rag demonstrated the new thing – ‘swing’. It was clear to all that Eales had the history of jazz piano literally at his fingertips.
A Fats Waller medley – Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Honeysuckle Rose – received rapturous applause, likewise Art Tatum and Tea for Two replete with quotes. Eales said: He was like god. A narrative was developing…Oscar Peterson. On hearing Tatum the great Canadian decided to stop playing,   said Eales. Sometime later OP returned to his practice and the rest is (jazz piano) history. Eales headed straight down the historical track on Night Train calling at Bebop Central to take a look at Bud Powell’s Bouncing with Bud and Thelonious Monk’s ’Round Midnight and Well, You Needn’t.
The house lights went up as Eales closed the first set with Errol Garner’s Misty.

As the second set opened, Fred Thelonius Baker was in the house to listen to his old pal Eales in the ‘locked-hands’ style of George Shearing. From Lullaby of Birdland to Bill Evans. Eales took a moment to fondly recall a tour he had undertaken in 2005 playing the music of Evans, adding the itinerary on that occasion sadly didn’t take him as far north as Berwick. Waltz for Debby provided some compensation, and, perhaps, the Welshman will one day return to play a Bill Evans’ concert. Eales made the observation that Evans, Horace Silver and Cecil Taylor were born within a twelve month period (1928-29), yet each went on to forge his own distinctive style…the impressionism of Evans, Silver’s contrasting Blue Note bluesy bop style and the freeform idiom pioneered by Taylor.

Geoff Eales rounded off his entertaining presentation with compositions by a stellar triumvirate of contemporary jazz pianists. McCoy Tyner’s Passion Dance – in an aside Eales suggesting those present with an understanding of such matters would know that Trane’s one-time sparring partner often incorporates fourths rather than thirds in his playing – and ECM mainstay Keith Jarrett’s My Song leading into Chick Corea’s up tempo Armando’s Rhumba.

Eales’ matinee performance comprised a plethora of styles and to think all were expertly executed by one man…Geoff Eales! By way of farewell, Eales played Eales. The Maltings’ Jazz Weekend is in its infancy. On this evidence, it could develop into a fully-fledged Berwick Jazz Festival.                     
Russell                                    

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