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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

December

Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ All Saints Church, Cleadon. 7:00pm. Concert in the church hall. BYOB.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Sid White. The best free show in town!

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Free. Note later start time, concert performance (open to the public).
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay, Newcastle. 12 noon - 4:00pm. £26.00 (inc 3-course meal in in St Mary's Lighthouse Suite). SOLD OUT!
Thu 07: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 07: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.Donations. Feat. Mark Sanders. CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00. Downstairs.
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club: Just Friends @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. Guest band night w. Richie Emmerson, Ian Bosworth, Dave Archbold, Ron Smith, Mark Hawkins. 9:00pm.

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle. 1:00pm. £7.00.
Fri 08: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Woodland Village Hall, Bishop Auckland. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Fri 08: Sleep Suppressor + Redwell @ Head of Steam, Neville St., Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv); £5.00. student.
Fri 08: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert's Church, Shadforth, Co. Durham.
Fri 08: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £8.00.

Sat 09: Prudhoe Community Band @ Central Station, Newcastle. 10:00am - 12 noon. Charity fundraiser.
Sat 09: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Skinnergate, Darlington. 1:00pm.
Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoe Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Funk Soul Sista @ Stack, Seaburn. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Beth Clarke @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Whittingham Memorial Institute, Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00., £10.00.
Sun 10: Tele-Port @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Zhenya Strigalev.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Interim Final Recitals @ Newcastle University. Details TBC.

Tue 12: Stu Collingwood Organ Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £10.00.

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Tomasz Stanko Quartet and Partikel, EFG London Jazz Festival, Cadogan Hall, November 10.

(Review by Mike Collins)
It was over an hour before Tomasz Stanko (trumpet) reached for the mic, his introduction of the band barely audible over the cheers and whoops echoing round Cadogan Hall.  There had been musical announcements as Stanko let fly a conversational flurry of chromaticism, or David Virelles (piano) sketched a few dark chords to direct the band towards the next episode.  This was a remarkable, fluid performance, steadily intensifying over the course of the long set of contrasting moods and textures.
Stanko’s modus operandi is atmospheric and episodic acoustic jazz that encompasses hypnotically grooving, loose-limbed pieces built around fragmentary hooks; languid, deceptively simple melodies with expansive and rich harmony; jagged flurries of notes over racing meters. The accompanying trio, completed by Reuben Rogers on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums explored every nuance and possibility.
They crept in over Rogers’ steady, walking line and accumulated an unstoppable momentum to open the set. A scattering of rhapsodic chords from the piano ushered in a typical wispy, plaintive melody from the trumpet. There was a palpable thickening of the atmosphere as the silence between notes was allowed to swell. Virelles allowed the faintest of repeated notes to chime and the trumpet sighed. Then Cleaver started an urgent shuffling groove, Rogers’ bass locked in, Stanko assayed a few sliding dance steps before spooling out another Stank-ish ditty and standing back having lit the touchpaper.  
Virelles produced the first of several volcanic solos. Crystalline phrases were repeated, repeated again, turned upside down with percussive counterpoint from his left hand before a pummelling battery of rhythms doubled with an eruption from Cleaver who’d been shadowing every move. Even Reuben Rogers was whooping from behind the bass. Stanko’s contributions were invariably brief, as much a conductor and on the spot orchestrator as frontman, his fragile sound sketching out the territory whether with squalls of notes or filigrees of melody. Cleaver was an immense presence whether filling the canvas with skittering shimmers of texture from the cymbals or building the tumult with boiling rhythms.  
The American trio has brought an extra dimension to Stanko’s music, this set was drawn from the most recent release December Avenue  and the roars for more recognised we’d witnessed something special.
Partikel played a short opening set offering a brief gust of a distinctive blend of striking melody, artfully shifting harmony and infectious grooves with often surprising turns. Guitarist Ant Law joined the regular trio of Duncan Eagles (sax); Max Luthert (bass) and Eric Ford (drums).  
Their well-received set will have whetted plenty of appetites.
Mike.

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