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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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

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.

Friday, May 04, 2018

Alan Barnes & Paul Edis @ the Lit & Phil - May 4

Alan Barnes (alto/clarinet); Paul Edis (piano).
(Review by Lance/photos courtesy of Jerry)
What better way is there to while away an hour than by listening to Alan Barnes and Paul Edis in the intimate surroundings of Newcastle's Literary and Philosophical Society?
The monthly miniature jazz concerts held in the venerable building are well-supported and justifiably so. In Paul Edis and Alan Barnes, you have the perfectly matched pair with each one seemingly reading the other's mind.
Opening up with Joyspring, the ideas just flowed from Barnes' innermost soul to emerge from the bell of his trusty Mark Vl alto. Not to be outdone, Edis too dealt himself a few aces before rounding off the number with the obligatory fours. Normally, fours leave me cold but, when done without a drummer nailing the floorboards down they are much more acceptable - and musical.
For Some Time Ago, a waltz by Argentinian composer/pianist Sergio Mihanovich, Barnes switched to clarinet remarking, in the process, of Tony Eales' strange dislike of the instrument. What's not to like? It was quite beautiful! Edis' final chord took everyone, Barnes included, by surprise.
Come in Senor Jobim, he's never far away. Corcovado, the mountain in Rio had our duo in bossa nova mode. The final fours or was it eights? saw their lines entwine contrapuntally. 
Apart from being a superb pianist, Edis is also a composer of merit and the next two compositions were his. Whiskers displayed both of those talents to the full. The head had a Monkish feel to it whilst the piano solo broke into a stride chorus. Barnes, needless to say, sight-read the part with ease and there were a few bars that may have saw a lesser player stumble, but not Alan Barnes although he did have to put his specs on.
The second piece, Breathless, was a waltz that Paul had adapted from an arrangement for trio and choir, Alan returned to clarinet (with a suitable aside to Tony Eales) for this one.
From here on in and on to the finish line, it was all Charlie Parker. Lover Man; Ornithology and Au Privave - and who better to play them?
Then it was all over! Could an hour really go by that quickly?
The applause for the two players was both deafening and deserving.
Come back soon - what am I saying? 
Alan Barnes is with the Durham Alumni Big Band at the Dolphin Centre, Darlington this Saturday (May 5) and with the Paul Edis Trio this Sunday afternoon (May 6) at Bondgate Methodist Church, Darlington - 2pm. Both gigs as part of the Darlington Jazz Festival.
The pair are also in church on May 17 at St. James' and St. Basil's in Fenham. 7:30pm. This is also Barnes with the Edis Trio. 

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