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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 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

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Mon 23: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 4:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Mon 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free. Business as usual!.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 27: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sat 28: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 11:30am. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 28: Fri 20: Castillo Nuevo @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 28: Jude Murphy, Rich Herdman & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 28: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Stepney Bank, Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sun 29: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 29: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

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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