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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Miners' Picnic @ Woodhorn, Ashington. Music inc. Northern Monkey Brass Band (3:00-3:50pm); New York Brass Band (4:00-4:55pm).
Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Jeremy McMurray's Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Ropner Park, Stockton TS18 4EF. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Kansas Smitty's House Band @ Ronnie Scott's - May 7

Giacomo Smith (alto); Pete Horsfall (trumpet/vocal); Alec Harper (tenor); Adrian Cox (clarinet/vocal); Joe Webb (piano); Dave Archer (guitar); Ferg Ireland (bass); Will Cleasby (drums).
(Review by Sebastian Scotney of LondonJazzNewsKansas Smitty's House Band at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival Photo credit and © John Watson / jazzcamera.co.uk)
The Kansas Smittys are on a roll. Their Ronnie Scott’s date on Monday came after no fewer than four shows at Cheltenham. “We played a lot, we didn’t sleep a lot,” explained leader Giacomo Smith - and before long they’ll be off to play at a festival in Nantes in France.
Into my mind came a distant memory. I once reviewed a date of a small band led by Giacomo Smith at Boisdale Canary Wharf in April 2013, LINK

There I was five years ago in the role of “the-only-audience-member-who-sort-of-knows-when-to-applaud-because-this-music-needs-some-kind-of--response-dammit”, dutifully checking out the end just about every solo and every number. That was then, this is now. That was before the “Kansas Smitty’s” name had even been dreamt up, before their well-deserved success started to take wing. The formula, the bar which is their home and all that has worked just brilliantly. Audiences love this band. Everybody loves this band.
There were things that I didn’t understand then, and probably never will, like the obligatory apostrophe in “Kansas Smitty’s”. And then there are things I didn’t understand then but certainly do after the Ronnie Scott’s gig. It was a mystery why the Smitty’s (that apostrophe...just move on Seb) needed two distinct line-ups the “Big Four” and the “House Band”. The Big Four was always going to work. Its portability, its tight brotherhood feel, the quality of the people in it…. never needed much justification. Last time I checked it had done over 1,000 gigs, in other words it had proved its purpose and become a way of life for its key personnel. But, I had wondered, what was the “House Band” all about? As I say, it all made sense before my eyes on Monday.

There were the Big Four members in the middle of the Ronnie’s stage (Giacomo Smith - on alto sax only), Pete Horsfall (trumpet and vocal), Ferg Ireland (bass) and Dave Archer (guitar) who by dint of all that gigging are by now the tightest, cheeriest band on these isles. Definitely “played-in” in every sense.

And then you start adding. Joe Webb on piano. He spent most of the gig with his neck craned, facing away from the keyboard, his gaze not wanting to miss any the action in the middle, and again and again making a wonderful contribution to it. Lightness of touch, some great energetic solo-ing, a sense of fun. And then there is Will Cleasby at the drum kit. Twenty-one years old, I was told. Twenty...One! And in the band for most of the past year. And a real find. Alert, creative, and able to propel the whole band. And then tenor saxophonist Alec Harper. He justified having been brought back over from the US for his light, airy, Ike Quebec-ish tenor feature on Ellington’s All Too Soon (it was written for Ben Webster) but also is an impeccable ensemble player. And the virtue of clarinetist and vocalist Adrian Cox was plain to see from the moment he was asked to do a victory lap of Ronnie’s before lighting the place up with another Ellington tune, Jump for Joy. And what a very great singer Adrian Cox is. 

The description here, and the fact that two big moments were Ellington-inspired might start to give the impression that the band sticks to one style. They don't. They go further back into Jelly Roll Morton, and their arrangements also step forward into the directions of, say, Mingus or Marty Paich. And they have a way of sounding like much more than an octet, more a “small band that sounds like a big band.” And by the end the audience (to the extent that the Ronnie’s benches permit it) were on their feet to show their approval.

Kansas Smitty’s are now a regular fixture at Ronnie’s. They have a healthy young fan base which is still growing. And that phrase “a band to watch” which I used in 2013 has a different meaning now. They were a joy to watch.  And to hear. 
Seb. 
(Kansas Smitty's House Band are at Sage Gateshead on November 9 - Lance)

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