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Bebop Spoken There

Wendell Brunious: "Because the blues is not 1,4 and 5 or 1,4,5,2,1. You could wake up with a flat tyre or a headache this morning, that's the blues, man" - (DownBeat, Oct. 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

15878 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 885 of them this year alone and, so far, 83 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums). CANCELLED!

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Paul Skerritt @ Vespa Italian Bar & Steakhouse, Primrose Hill, Jarrow. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 483 3355.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Sound the Trumpets @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 05: Hot Club du Nord @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00. POSTPONED!
Thu 05: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Tommy Bentz Trio + Mark Croft Duo + George Shovlin & George Lamb @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Harbour View Speakeasy's USA blues double bill + Shovlin & Lamb!
Thu 05: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 06: Alcyona Mick @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 2:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Balo @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Fri 06: Lexer/Mayes/Noble + Semay Wu + Miman @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Vault, Hexham. 7:30pm. £20.00. Book in advance. Moreno with Alan Law, Paul Grainger & John Bradford.
Fri 06: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. 'Celebrating Oscar'.
Fri 06: Nu Brass Sounds: Big Brass Bash @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: TBC @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 07: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 10:15am. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Hot Club du Nord @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 07: Bugge & Niccols + Moore & Fairhall @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - All the Things You Are. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 07: Rie Nakajima @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Sat 07: Samuel Blaser Trio + Toxvaerd & Zeeberg + Muramatsu & Welch @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 08: Zoë Gilby Quintet + Ubunye @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Line-up inc. Tony Kofi. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 08: Tommy Bentz Band @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. USA blues band.

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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