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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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!"

Postage

15229 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 248 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (March 20).

From This Moment On ...

March

Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: FILM: Mo' Better Blues @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Fri 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Scarth Hall, Staindrop, Co. Durham. 8:00pm. £10.00.
Fri 24: Archipelago + Bulbils @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 25: Vermont Big Band @ Walker Community Centre, Walker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Fundraiser for Benfield Juniours Football Club. Hot food available, BYOB.
Sat 25: John Logan & Friends @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rat Pack, Motown etc. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Hand to Mouth @ The Dun Cow - May 30

 Lindsay Hannon (vocal); Bradley Johnston (guitar).
(Review by Lance).
Delightful!
I could end the review now for that one word sums up a session that had indeed been – delightful!
However, my readers, hopefully, want more i.e. what made it so delightful?
It all began about 40 years ago when Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded the first of a series of duo albums that became genre classics. Until recently, they were hallowed ground where angels feared to tread but, with the (Joe) passage of time, the realisation that this was relatively unploughed pastures encouraged newer faces to explore the source material.
To my ears, none have done it better than Hannon and Johnston or, to give them their official title, Hand to Mouth.
This was proven tonight when they held the small, but attentive, audience in the palm of their hands. For me it was the first time in living memory that I’ve attended a pub gig where the performers were shown such undivided attention that, had someone dropped a pin, it would have sounded like a Buddy Rich drum solo.

Needless to say, the silence was well and truly broken by the applause at the end of each number.
Lindsay makes no attempt to emulate Ella, who could? Lindsay is Lindsay and if there are any extraneous influences then perhaps a hint of Anita O’Day occasionally seeps in in the way that both singers take outrageous liberties with melody and lyric that, nevertheless, always seems to work.
Bradley too is his own man. He’s absorbed the Joe Pass approach and, via a glance at Pat Metheny, tailored it to suit – he wears it well.

The material was, in the main, familiar without being hackneyed: Take Love Easy; Dindi; Don’t Be That Way; Willow Weep For me; I Love Being Here with You; I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues; The Very Thought of You and I Can’t Escape from You
Amazingly, I couldn’t recall this latter number even though it was written in 1936 by Leo Robin and Richard Whiting and sung by Bing in the film Rhythm on the Range. It’s a lovely song and yet, back in 1936, it was the flipside to Bing’s 78 that became the big hit – I’m an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande!  

All Too Soon; Gee Baby Ain’t I Good to You?; Someone to Watch Over me*; A bop number, was it Well You Needn’t?; Solitude; Down With Love; I Wish I Were in Love Again (Larry Hart’s amazing quadruple-rhymed lyrics – (The broken dates, the endless waits, the conversations with the flying plates, the lovely loving and the hateful hates… magic!) and Some Other Time.

As I wrote at the beginning…
Delightful!
Lance.

*Someone to Watch Over me was a particularly poignant moment as Brad reminded us that it was just over a year ago on May 25 that Margaret Barnes died. Margaret, who was such an enthusiastic supporter of jazz was perhaps Brad’s biggest fan and whenever possible attended his gigs even though on one occasion it meant postponing the start of her chemotherapy. Everyone who knew Margaret had fond memories of her and Brad’s words helped keep that memory alive.
The choice of song was apt and Lindsay’s interpretation of the verse added to the emotional content.
RIP Margaret, we still miss you, we always will...

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