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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

Sun 22: Hot Club du Nord @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £15.00. + bf. Xmas party. SOLD OUT!
Sun 22: Red Kites Jazz @ Gibside Chapel, nr. Rowlands Gill. 1:00pm. Admission charge applies.
Sun 22: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 22: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Revolutionaires @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb rhythm & blues outfit.
Sun 22: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger & Mark Robertson @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music (musicians TBC).
Sun 22: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Zerox, Sandhill, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors).

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.

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

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ Jazz Café - May 18.

Niffi Osiyemi (vocals); Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (bass).
(Review by Lance/Photos courtesy of Minnie F & Lance)
Niffi, a final year medical student and a first year (first rate!) jazz singer wowed a packed Jazz Café downstairs bar who roared their approval demanding, and getting, two encores! Not bad going at a venue that, on a Friday night, is sometimes noted for its indifference - not tonight though!
A choice selection of GASbook classics that varied from the tender to the not so tender to the frenetic - sometimes on the same number.
It's still a work in progress, there were a few hiccups but none to mar the overall kicks the listeners were getting and we were nowhere near Route 66.
Don't Get Around Much Anymore and Our Love is Here to Stay, were smooth, swingy songs that little prepared us for the Cry me a River to end all Cry me a Rivers. This wasn't a river, it was the North Sea at its most turbulent. The flood barriers well and truly breached!
By contrast, that well-known warning to philanderers - Makin' Whoopee - returned the room to sanity. It may have been around this point that Niffi dispensed with her stilettos, possibly prompting the tall, angular singer's next song, This Can't be Love which contains the appropriate line My head is not in the skies...
I Keep Going Back to Joe's, a longtime fave of mine - Nat King Cole and, later, Curtis Stigers both put their brand on it - didn't quite gell. Maybe it needs a little more work. Whatever, I do hope they keep it in the pad as Niffi has the voice for it.
The set finished with a belter that brought the house down - The Darktown Strutter's Ball. You couldn't make it up. A song over 100 years old being wildly applauded by a (mainly) youthful audience. I think the scat chorus did it for them (and me!)
During the break, we discussed the show as it stood and concluded that, whilst Niffi's still raw around the edges, it's something that time will partially erode. Let's hope that time knows when to stop as that rawness is part of her appeal. The other verdict 'the jury' came to was that Law and Grainger were playing a blinder. The northeast is currently well-served for pianists and bassists and these two are way up high among the contenders.

Set two began with the crowd handclapping in time [mostly], Law and Grainger 'vamping 'til ready' before Niffi hit for home with that ever-popular, triple-rhymer, I'm Beginning to See the Light.
Undecided, a surprisingly restrained Black Coffee, They Can't Take That Away From me, Honeysuckle Rose and a song even older than Darktown Strutters Ball - Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey?.
Bill left home in 1902 and, despite Ella's offer to do the cooking and pay the rent he still hadn't returned by 1963. Now, in 2018, It was Niffi's turn to apologise for that rainy evening when she turned him out with nothing but a fine tooth comb. Using Ella's version as a launchpad, she once again had the room in raptures. Maybe the younger element was hearing this, and indeed all of the songs, for the first time! I think the late First Lady would have approved.
I Love Being Here With You (the feeling was mutual) was supposed to be the last number but, of course, it wasn't, and nor was I Wish I Knew How it Felt to be Free. It wasn't until the last strains of Hallelujah I Just Love Him so had faded and the last handclap had ceased that we knew the show was over.
A memorable evening - thank you Niffi, Alan and Paul.
Photos.
Lance.
PS: The Niffi Osiyemi Trio can be heard at DJazz, the Durham City Jazz Festival held on June 1, 2 and 3 at various Durham City venues. Check it out.

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