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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

15867 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 874 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (Sept. 25).

From This Moment On ...

September

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.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Paul Wight (drums).

Friday, November 24, 2017

Group Theory @ The Jazz Co-op, The Globe, Newcastle - November 23

Dan Garel (alto saxophone); Tom Burgess (guitar); Dylan Purches (bass) & Tristan Bacon (drums)
(Review by Russell)
Group Theory emerged from a jazz hothouse in the heart of Durham city. Durham University and the ever quirky Empty Shop on Framwellgate Bridge are key elements in a burgeoning jazz scene to be found, and heard, in Dunelm House (Students’ Union), the Music Department up on Palace Green, the Gala Theatre, the county-wide Brass Festival, and the new Durham Jazz Festival with its many unusual venues which in its first year included a gig in a barber’s shop.
Earlier this year Group Theory played a superb gig at Newcastle’s Jazz Café and the opportunity to hear the quartet again just along the road at the Jazz Co-op was too good to pass up. Dan Garel is no stranger to the Jazz Café’s bi-monthly jam session and here at the Globe on Railway Street the alto saxophonist (and Group Theory’s composer) played two sets in the company of his old mate, Durham University Big Band drummer, Tristan Bacon, bassist Dylan Purches, and debutant Gibson guitar playing Tom Burgess.

The quartet’s setlist comprised the familiar – Garel’s compositions and a few standards. The select audience observed that Group Theory adhered to the ‘solo-head-solo-fours’ formula, but of interest beyond such strictures were Garel’s razor-sharp alto and Bacon’s frequent injection of hip-hop and drum ’n’ bass grooves. Symmetries (comp. D Garel) and Pumpkin Vermicelli (comp. D Garel) were in the set list earlier in the year and it was great to hear them again. New boy Tom Burgess played the gig seated, without a pick, studious rather than demonstrative. It would appear Tom has rapidly got his head around Dan’s compositional ideas, and perched (no pun intended) on a high bar stool,  bassist Dylan Purches played it straight down the line, unperturbed by Dan’s coruscating alto solos fizzing around the room.          

Garel’s ballad Signal Hill featured Bacon’s sustained brush work and fluent improvisation from the impressive Burgess. The quartet’s senior members, Garel and Bacon, brought in Stella by Starlight ahead of an insistent, urgent alto solo. A short interval, time enough to get to the bar, the choice an easy one; Another bottle of Black Sheep, Keith, thanks.

A new Garel tune with the working title Modal Composition resumed matters, Burgess hitting on a motif, then our altoist taking off once again. A new one, Circling Hours, then the familiar two-mallet, oh-so-slow number, Eight Weeks. Garel likes to play Have You Met Miss Jones? (Bacon doesn’t!), they played it, great stuff! To close this Jazz Co-op engagement, a ‘free groove’ number, possibly titled Free Groove. A slow fuse burner, Burgess impressed, likewise the quartet. Group Theory can be heard again early in the new year at the Jazz Café. Recommended.
Russell                                      

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