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Bebop Spoken There

Kelly Sill: "Just because everyone is playing through the changes in the same time doesn't mean they're actually playing together" - (JazzTimes March/April 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

15260 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 279 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (March 29).

From This Moment On ...

April

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 04: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 04: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Bradley Johnston (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations. Feat. John Pope, Marie Shreer, John Garner.
Thu 06: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 06: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Note earlier start time.

Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 07: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 07: Finntet + Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.
Fri 07: TBA @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Blind Pig Blues Club.

Sat 08: Me Lost Me + Ceitidh Mac + Heather Ferrier @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 7:30pm. JNE.
Sat 08: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED from last week (Sat 01).
Sat 08: Robbie Reay @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Acoustic blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 08: Anth Purdy @ Mr Tighe's, Bebside, Northumberland. 8:30pm.

Monday, May 07, 2018

Pericopes + 1 @ The Globe Jazz Bar, Newcastle - May 6.

Emiliano Vernizzi (tenor); Alessandro Sgobbia (keys); Nick Wight (drums).
(Review by Lance/Photos courtesy of Ken Drew).
Spring Bank Holiday in Newcastle. The temperature warm for the time of year and the streets awash (literally – but not with rain) as the revellers celebrate their 9 to 5 freedom or, foregoing their studies, let it all hang out. They weren’t coming from Evensong at St. Nicholas’ Cathedral nor were they heading for The Globe, where they could not only have further slaked their thirst from the choice of beer, wines and spirits on offer, but also be witness to some of the most exciting music they’re likely to hear this year.
Fortunately, a goodly crowd of more mature souls did make the short trip from the fleshpots and were well rewarded for their efforts.
Perhaps they’d witnessed Pericopes + 1’s performance on The Concourse at GIJF a couple of years back – a session that Wes of JNE who, with the Jazz Co-op, co-promoted this event, waxed eloquent about.
I missed that event myself but, having reviewed Pericopes + 1’s latest CD – Legacy – I knew it wouldn’t be one for the faint-hearted. And yet…
…and yet, there were moments of sheer beauty amidst the Jericho-like fusillade that must have caused the tango dancers in the upper room to mistime their Argentine Cross.
The oft-quoted Sound of Surprise has, surely, never been more appropriate than with this band. They can be playing sedately as if at an afternoon tea dance (or should that be cappuccino?) one moment then suddenly, all hell breaks loose and they go for the jugular. Keyboard player leaps from the stool pounding the unsuspecting instrument unmercifully, tenor player points his instrument skyward (tango dancers flee for cover) and we discover that the French got it right when they refer to drums as la batterie! Then, in the blink of an eyelid, its fff to ppp and we’re back to the tea dance.
Tenor sax man Vernizzi has an amazing command of the horn. When blowing harmonics he hits notes that probably only dogs can here – and there was one friendly little canine present – and when he comes down to earth you notice he has a ’tone’. Some players, no matter how technically skilled they are don’t have that quality. The air goes down the body of the instrument without hitting the sides resulting in a vaporous sound. No lack of substance with Signor Vernizzi.
Sgobbio, the most gymnastic of players, slotted in well providing a solid harmonic base as well as, by use of some kind of electronic sorcery, producing sci-fi sounds that didn’t jar as much as these effects usually do.
New Yorker Nick Wight on drums provided the calm and the storm and not always in that order!

Wight was seated, unlike the other two who bobbed and weaved like puppets on a string. This was a performance that was, at times, as dramatic as it was musical. The adrenalin flowed both off stage and on and, if the rest of the audience is anything like me, they’re still unwinding.
Setlist: Kuwa; Grossetto; Red Sand Town; November Tears; Zardis (Le Premier); Martyrled; Legacy. The majority are from Legacy, the album of which I'm told was first reviewed in the UK on BSH!
Lance.
PS: The fact that all three are based in different cities in different countries (Rome, Paris and New York) makes the band's cohesion all the more incredible!

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