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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15867 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 874 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (Sept. 25).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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); Paul Wight (drums).

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.

Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Nigel Kennedy @ Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Town Hall, May 3.

(Review by Steve T)
I saw Nigel Kennedy at Scarborough a few years back and he did a set of Django - more or less - and a set of Hendrix - more or less. The former was great but the latter was immense.
I generally go to Cheltenham if there are two acts close together in the schedule. The early announcements met that, but the addition of Nigel Kennedy doing Hendrix meant doing more or less the whole festival for the first time ever became a Thing.
£25 membership later and my bass fingers doing the walking at the allotted time, what could possibly go wrong? Initially, there was a suggestion that I may not be telling the whole truth, but once proven by telephone records, my big mistake became that I rang at precisely the moment the tickets went on sale - precisely what I was aiming for - three times. You couldn't make it up but it's their boast that they don't even have a preference for fairness.
As I arrived at the venue I was livid at the sight of literally hundreds and hundreds of people in front of me who phoned the box office after me. But others were livid that he was no longer doing Hendrix; others that he kept swearing, which I hadn't realised was a secret; and others because the audience kept interrupting their concentration by applauding during pieces, though mainly when encouraged from the stage.
The musicianship was extraordinarily, mind-bogglingly stunning, as you'd expect. He makes his violin talk, sing and dance and no doubt, when we're not there, eat, sleep and drink. It seems that any sound imaginable and many unimaginable can come forth from this little man and his little instrument.
Nor does he need to hang out with mediocre musicians; two brilliant guitarists, mostly playing in a Gypsy style, with just a little slide to distinguish between the two; a brilliant upright bass player, and a brilliant cellist duetting with the violin on many of the melodies.
Bach to open, from him unaccompanied, followed by an extended piece from his second favourite composer, surely Vivaldi but no, Kennedy.
He closed the first set with the first from Gershwin – They Can't Take that Away From Me -beginning on piano and he's every bit as good as you'd expect him to be.
Gershwin dominated the second set and would include Rhapsody in (claret) Blue, which I took to be a secret word amongst the rest of the audience, indicating the daft North East lad who rang the Box Office bang on one o’clock and got seats with restricted viewing.
Porgy and Bess I couldn't quite identify, but he described it as a Thing, and Summertime was taken at a slow pace, described as less is less, though the coda hinted at Hendrix.
Lady be Good found them firmly in Gypsy Jazz territory, continued into the encore of Swing 39 morphing into Minor Swing right at the end.
For the second encore, some of us shouted for Hendrix, but they went down a folkie route with a Southern Irish folk tune followed by Danny Boy, some reduced to tears but everybody on their feet for rapturous applause. He left the stage playing I Could Have Danced All Night but returned for more applause.
He's a very special musician. 
Steve T.

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