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Bebop Spoken There

Ambrose Akinmusire: “ I am certainly always aware of what the masses are doing. And when I see too many people going one way, I'm going another way - even when I don't know what's over that way". DownBeat, March, 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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Castillo Neuvo Trio + Conor Emery & His ‘Bones Band @ The Grove, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00. (£7.00. student).
Thu 21: Remi Banklyn + Chris Corcoran Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.50. Chicago blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime piano.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Nauta + Remy CB + Last Orders @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). Free.
Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 22: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 23: Jambone @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:30pm. Free (ticketed). End of term performance in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 23: Red Kites Jazz @ Rowlands Gill Community Centre NE39 1JB. 7:00pm. Tickets: £12.00. (gibsidecommunityfarm@gmail.com). A ‘Build a Barn’ fundraiser. BYOB, tea/coffee available.
Sat 23: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00. + bf (book in person at venue - no booking fee!). Featuring pianist Martin Litton.
Sat 23: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 24: Luis Verde @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Verde (alto sax); Joe Steels (guitar); John Pope (double bass); John Hirst (drums). Alto sax brilliance!
Sun 24: Elsie Franklin @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Country blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Sun 24: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Las Vegas Live with the Rat Pack @ The Forum, Billingham.
Sun 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Otterburn Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sun 24: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Note start time - 7:00pm.
Sun 24: Bold Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Tuesday, May 08, 2018

Darlington Jazz Festival: Matt Roberts Sextet @ Voodoo Café - May 4

Matt Roberts (trumpet); Riley Stone-Lonergan (tenor saxophone); George Grant (alto saxophone); Chris Eldred (piano); Daisy George (double bass); Sam Gardner (drums)
(Review by Russell) 
Every year a handful of gigs are eagerly anticipated by your reviewer – Vasilis Xenopoulos playing the Traveller’s Rest in Darlington and Blaydon’s Black Bull, the Strictly Smokin’ Big Band’s sell out  ‘big name’ concerts, and, during the Darlington Jazz Festival, the returning trumpeter Matt Roberts playing a hometown gig above the Voodoo Café on Skinnergate. Friday evening’s 'Jazz After Dark' concert featured Roberts’ brilliant, youthful sextet playing the music of Kenny Dorham.

This year’s edition of Matt Roberts’ band wrought no fewer than four changes in personnel. The in-demand Leo Richardson couldn’t make it as his star is in the ascendant following the release of his album The Chase and his busy itinerary simply couldn’t accommodate Darlington. Roberts thought about it for a second before giving fellow Leeds College of Music graduate Riley Stone-Lonergan a call. A good choice, RSL was in fine form when heard recently in Durham. Pianist Chris Eldred was another obvious first call. With a cv including gigs with John Dankworth, Jean Toussaint and Bobby Wellins, appearances at Ronnie’s, the Bull’s Head and Soho’s Pizza Express, and a long tenure as pianist with NYJO, Eldred would surely cut it. 
The bass and drums working on this 2018 festival gig were well known and not so well known. Drummer Sam Gardner played this gig two or three years ago and as another LCoM graduate is no stranger to the regional jazz scene. The one name not so well known was double bass player Daisy George. In her final year at the Royal Academy of Music, Daisy, as of Friday, is your reviewer’s new favourite bass player! The one survivor from last year’s line-up, alto saxophonist George Grant, stood to Roberts’ right, just as he did last year, ready to rip it up.

The annual ‘Jazz After Dark’ gig guarantees a full house and this year wasn’t any different. Family, friends, fans, they were out in force to welcome home one of their own. Matt Roberts, now wearing spectacles to read the charts (at the grand old age of thirty-ish!), greeted all and sundry, eventually making it to the stand ready to play some Kenny Dorham. Una Mas for openers, Poetic Spring from Blue Spring (Dorham’s album with Cannonball Adderley) following up, this 2018 edition of Robert’s amazing band was up and running, firing on all cylinders. Trumpeter Roberts led the way; the blue touch paper lit, the slow burn solo, the fireworks. RSL and Grant stood either side of the Main Man smiling, weighing up their options, confident they would match Robert’s opening joust. The rhythm section purred, then purred some more with Eldred supplying the chords as Sam Gardener played better than ever – at one point Roberts effusive about the drummer’s ‘hard-bop chops’ – and then there’s our undergraduate, Daisy George. Simply wonderful, in-the-pocket bass playing, often with eyes closed, very much into it all as her bandmates looked on with no little admiration. It’s difficult to believe this was Daisy’s first gig with Matt’s band!  

On more than one occasion Roberts drew on Joe Henderson (Recorda Me) and from Whistle Stop, Dorham’s 1961 Blue Note album, Philly Twist and later in the set, Buffalo. Robert’s sextet exploited these numbers to the full – killer frontline solos, a cookin’ rhythm section – at one point prompting Roberts to joke that the positive audience response was down to his immaculate transcriptions!

During the interval the band went to the bar, some stepped outside to take the air, and after a while the Matt Roberts Sextet reconvened, drinks in hand, ready to play some more Kenny Dorham.
Band leader Roberts, playing his Yamaha ‘Bobby Shew’ trumpet, hit the ground running, firing from the first note on Straight Ahead as the engine room once again stoked the hard bop fires and again on the aforementioned Buffalo. George Grant weighed in on alto as the band first played Afrodisia, then it was the turn of Riley Stone-Lonergan to knock out another big tenor solo. The frontline took the majority of the solos but the rhythm section grabbed its share; pianist Chris Eldred dazzled, as did bassist Daisy George, and drummer Sam Gardner played better than ever – and that’s saying something! As the evening neared its end at way past eleven o’clock Joe Henderson’s album In ‘n Out offered Roberts the pick, choosing first Brown’s Town (featuring RSL, Eldred and George) and later Short Stay. Matt Roberts’ annual gig is a sure-fire winner and they’ll do it all again next year! 
Russell.                   


1 comment :

Patti said...

As Mr Reviewer says in his own inimitable way - this was one stonkingly brilliant gig, from start to finish ..... it was possible to get really close to the band, and it's always a joy to see fantastic musicians enjoying their gig as much as this appreciative audience member!

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