Total Pageviews

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

17444 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 718 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Oct. 10).

From This Moment On ...

October

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano), Paul Grainger (double bass), Bailey Rudd (drums).

Wed 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 16: Cath Stephens’ improvisation workshop @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 4:30-6:00pm. Collaborative group focusing on vocal improvisations.
Wed 16: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 16: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 17: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Olivia Cuttill Quintet @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 17: Moonlight Serenade Orchestra UK: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Phoenix Theatre, Blyth. 7:30pm.
Thu 17: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 17: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. Guests Jeremy McMurray (keys); Richie Emmerson (tenor sax); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Adrian Beadnell (bass). 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s, Crook. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Chet Set @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Pete Tanton & co.
Fri 18: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm (upstairs). A Hoodoo Blues dance & social event. £10.00. class & social (£10.00., £7.50., £5.00. social only). Michael Woods (country blues guitar) on stage 9:00pm.
Fri 18: East Coast Swing Band @ Hexham Abbey. 7:30pm. £9.00.
Fri 18: Ben Crosland Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 18: Durham University Jazz Society’s ‘High Standards’ @ Music Dept. Music Room, Divinity House, Palace Green, Durham University DH1 3RS. 8:009-30pm. Tel: 0191 334 1419. £7.00., £5.00.
Fri 18: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 19: Sat 19: Paula Jackman’s Jazz Masters @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 19: Howlin’ Mat @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Country blues guitar & vocals. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 20: Kamasi Washington @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. POSTPONED! New date Saturday 5 April 2025.
Sun 20: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: Magpies of Swing @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 21: Gideon Tazelaar Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 21: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 21: Gideon Tazelaar Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm.

Tue 22: Bywater Call @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Americana/blues/soul excellence.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Francis Tulip Quartet @ The Fox Inn, Hexham - Jan 9

Francis Tulip (guitar), Joel Brown (keyboards), Deon Krishnan (bass) & Matt MacKellar (drums)
(Review by Russell) 
On this third date of the tour, a short notice dep was required. Bassist Michael Dunlop had returned to London and sighting six string bass maestro Deon Krishnan walking through the door of the Fox Inn quelled any fears that this Hexham Jazz Club engagement could, perhaps, result in a less than cohesive performance. The booking of the Francis Tulip Quartet offered something a little different for the Fox’s hardcore jazz fans. What’s more, many new faces turned up making for a marvellous atmosphere.

The set list remained largely unchanged from the pre-Christmas tour dates – a good idea, enabling the tunes to develop by dint of playing them time and again in front of an audience. Benny Golson, Gilad Hekselman, Johnny Green (Body and Soul), Arthur Schwartz (Alone Together), familiar tunes all, with Joel Brown’s piano playing and Francis Tulip’s guitar solo on Body and Soul both sensitive and expansive. The audience liked what it heard with more than a few whoops and hollers from all parts of the room. Bandleader Tulip announced the first set would conclude with Caravan segueing into 500 Miles High.
The brace of tunes took matters to previously unscaled heights. Our bass dep Deon Krishnan sight reading the parts hung on to the coat tails of the young bucks as they flew 500 miles high, reaching for the stars, the transition from the first number to the second masterful with a beyond-his-years solo from Joel Brown. Thrilling stuff!

The Fox was busy. The publican couldn’t be anything other than delighted. A bit crack with Michael (Hexham Jazz Club), Mr Brown senior and the Tulip clan, a trip to the bar, a canny night alright and there was a second set to look forward to!

Wayne Shorter’s Yes or No opened the second set. This is, perhaps, the number which best sums up what the Francis Tulip Quartet is all about. Hugely accomplished, if they ever record an album – and why not? – Shorter’s composition must be on it, the musicianship was absolutely astonishing!               
In introducing a well-known tune Francis Tulip made the observation that ‘yesterday’ – ie Jan 8th – would have been Thelonious Monk’s birthday. Now then, basic research reveals this to be factually incorrect. Hey why worry? Further, Tulip suggested the great man would be spinning in his grave at the prospect of a 21st-century jazz group playing a funked up In Walked Bud. What the hell? The FT4 went ahead and played a funked up version. Who better than Deon Krishnan to funk it up? DK isn’t heard much on the jazz scene – he’s busy with other projects – but when he does play a jazz gig it’s always a fun night and funked-up fours with Matt MacKellar brought the house down.

Christian McBride’s Interlude was absolutely killing. A pub in a Northumberland market town, three young musicians, plus a not-so-young Krishnan (!!!), stretching out as they did was something else, you couldn’t make it up. Drummer Matt MacKellar, fresh from his first term at Berklee, has returned with a newly acquired dynamism. As if the young man wasn’t highly accomplished before he set off on the adventure of a lifetime, here at the Fox, Matt grabbed the night by the scruff of the neck with a sense of purpose, determinedly driving the quartet to ever greater heights, not least on Coltrane’s Impressions. The audience loved it, job done! Next stop Darlington on Sunday (Jan 14), six o’clock start at the Quakerhouse. Be there.           
Russell.

2 comments :

Anonymous said...

Thelonious Funk - In Walked Bootsy. You couldn't make it up.

Patti said...

The band didn't need Bootsy - they had Funky Deon, the funkiest bass man in town!

Blog Archive