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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

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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