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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

December

Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ All Saints Church, Cleadon. 7:00pm. Concert in the church hall. BYOB.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Sid White. The best free show in town!

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Free. Note later start time, concert performance (open to the public).
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay, Newcastle. 12 noon - 4:00pm. £26.00 (inc 3-course meal in in St Mary's Lighthouse Suite). SOLD OUT!
Thu 07: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 07: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.Donations. Feat. Mark Sanders. CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00. Downstairs.
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club: Just Friends @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. Guest band night w. Richie Emmerson, Ian Bosworth, Dave Archbold, Ron Smith, Mark Hawkins. 9:00pm.

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle. 1:00pm. £7.00.
Fri 08: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Woodland Village Hall, Bishop Auckland. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Fri 08: Sleep Suppressor + Redwell @ Head of Steam, Neville St., Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv); £5.00. student.
Fri 08: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert's Church, Shadforth, Co. Durham.
Fri 08: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £8.00.

Sat 09: Prudhoe Community Band @ Central Station, Newcastle. 10:00am - 12 noon. Charity fundraiser.
Sat 09: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Skinnergate, Darlington. 1:00pm.
Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoe Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Funk Soul Sista @ Stack, Seaburn. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Beth Clarke @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Whittingham Memorial Institute, Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00., £10.00.
Sun 10: Tele-Port @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Zhenya Strigalev.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Interim Final Recitals @ Newcastle University. Details TBC.

Tue 12: Stu Collingwood Organ Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £10.00.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Jazz Café Jam Session - May 15

(Review by Lance).
Once again, the Jazz Café jam session lived up to expectations - when does it not? The signs were good from the start. In Edis and Walker, we had two-thirds of Triptych on stage although there was little of that band's contemporary leanings present. Instead, with Grainger as the lynchpin, it was straight down the middle swing even if Falling in Love With Love did start off in waltz-time. You'd be so Nice to Come Home to had set the ball rolling but it was the filling in the sandwich that brought the house down. Take the A Train left the platform slower than is the norm and it looked like we were taking the scenic route until Edis refueled with an amazing left-hand tremolo that seemed to last from Penn Station to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem. His right hand wasn't idle either! Showboating, I know, but nonetheless impressive!
The first of the sitters-in was trumpet man Johnson who opened up with a Lee Morgan tune I didn't recognise and a Clifford Brown one which I did - Joyspring.
Johnson gave way, he would be back, to student duo Richardson and Savage both of whom are giving their Final Year Undergraduate Music Recital later this week. For Megan this was, I suppose, testing the water. If the judgment was to be in the form of a clapometer then start printing the certificate now making sure the H is in capitals. Her chosen test pieces were Sinead O'Connor's My Man is Gone and Prince's How Come You Don't Call me Anymore? Two very emotive pieces done here as a kind of jazz lieder.
We needed cheering up after all our lost loves had flashed by in a drowning man scenario and we got it in the form of Garel, Sykes, Pope and Mohammed. Richardson stayed at the piano as he too surely needed to shake off the depression Megan had so effectively, and brilliantly, created. Unless the examiners are going through some emotional crisis of their own the girl should walk it!
Old man sorrow was kicked out the door when Garel and Sykes blew a lively, boppy number and followed up with that perennial fave; Have You Met Miss Jones? - I think we will go on meeting her till we die, Miss Jones and I (I'm not complaining, even at 81 she's still tasty!)
Edis and Walker returned to accompany Ms. O'Neill whom we've also met several times. Kate gave us her take on Cry me a River which included a scat chorus and a frenetic finale. Always a showstopper. I Wish I Knew How it Feels to be Free concluded her set. We'd hoped she'd hang around to sing again but, when the call went out, Kate had gone.
It's usually a night to remember when Nick Gould lugs his tenor down from Edinburgh and this night was ne'er an exception.
You Stepped Out of a Dream (or was it a '62 Cortina?) - think Hank Mobley/Joe Henderson and you've got it! A Weaver of Dreams (was that a request? I wonder...) a nice tenor/bass interlude with Paul Grainger added some extra spice. Even more spice was added when Paul Gowland arrived with soprano sax to give Yardbird Suite a workout. Tenor and sop gelled.
Mohammed back on drums and a southpaw guitarist whose name I didn't catch - maybe it wasn't given - so we'll call him "Les" as he was playing an Epiphone Les Paul guitar.* He found his way around Tangerine as did Gowland. With Edis and Grainger that made four Pauls in total. If someone had said, "Take the next one Paul" it could have resulted in a bemused silence or a four-part fugue.
Trombone at The Caff usually means David Gray but 'Showtime' wasn't around. Instead, a new face appeared, Tom McDonald. Tom made an impressive debut blowing All of Me alongside big hitters Gould and Johnson. Tom hung around for Four, Paul Gowland returned and longtime absentee Matt MacKellar took over on drums. Mobley's This I Dig of You showed young Matt had lost none of his prowess on drums with an explosive solo.
As I left to take a train, Coltrane's Mr PC was a fitting finale. Originally dedicated to bassist Paul Chambers, we now had the fifth Paul - there's not that many in The Bible (I'm told!)
Lance
Paul Grainger (bass); Paul Edis (piano); Rob Walker (drums) + Ray Johnson (trumpet); Ben Richardson (piano); Megan Savage (voice); John Pope (bass); Dan Garel (alto); George Sykes (tenor); Hazem Mohammed (drums); Kate O'Neill (vocal); Nick Gould (tenor); Paul Gowland (soprano); "Les Paul" *(guitar); Tom McDonald (trombone); Matt MacKellar (drums).
*"Les Paul" is actually James Cuxson!

1 comment :

Patti said...

Ah - Weaver of Dreams ........ I have to confess that I requested this one! I'd been chatting to Nick at the bar, talking about tunes - and I happened to ask about it! He did play it beautifully! And it's not one that we hear very often at the JC.

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