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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

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

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.

Tuesday, June 05, 2018

DJazz: The Durham City Jazz Festival: Soweto Kinch - June 2

Soweto Kinch (alto saxophone, electronics, rapping); Nick Jurd (double bass); Will Glaser (drums)
(Review and photo - below left - by Russell/ photo right by Jerry) 
He read Modern History at Oxford, he’s won BBC and MOBO awards, received a Mercury Prize nomination (jazz musicians don’t win the Mercury), presents BBC Radio 3’s late night Jazz Now programme, confronts the politics of the music business (the EP War in a Rack a case in point), records albums and tours the world. DJazz wondered if he was up for a headline gig in Durham Miners’ Hall. He was, he came, he conquered.

DJazz is in its second year, tickets were selling well. The news that Soweto Kinch would be the headline attraction ensured the festival would sell out. And so it did. A rainswept early Saturday evening didn’t deter the hordes as they made their way up Flass Street to the DMA. The Durham Miners’ Association HQ stands in its own grounds, boasting the ‘Pitman’s Parliament’ or Durham Miners’ Hall as it is more formally known. The audience (perhaps that should be ‘delegates’) sat row upon row ready to engage – musically, and for some, politically – with Soweto Kinch.

Alto sax, Apple Mac, pedal board…the everyday hardware of the twenty-first century musician, a far cry from the days of the non-electric practitioner some one hundred years ago. Kinch played material from his CD Nonagram. The album’s title refers to time signatures, mathematics and… don’t worry if your head hurts at the prospect of equations and such like, simply enjoy the music. You will enjoy it, Kinch’s alto sax playing isn’t for the faint-hearted, he goes for the jugular, grabs hold and doesn’t let go. Coruscating alto lines hot plate welded to a hip-hop beat keep on coming, resistance is futile, sit back and take it! Centricity to Nostalgia and on to Mitosis then Montpellier, Kinch played with cast iron authority, he’s been doing this professionally for over twenty years.

On this DJazz gig were regular bassist Nick Jurd and the razor-sharp drummer Will Glaser. Their role was to anchor the hip-hop beat, steering a steady course for Kinch to explore; upper register, lower register, filtered laptop loops, then the poetry. Soweto Kinch’s party piece required the on-side crowd’s participation in a freestyle rap. DURHAM suggested Kinch, asking the audience to shout out a word beginning with D. Only in Geordieland could someone bellow DIVINT! Meaning DO NOT, Kinch got it. Next U…UNITY…Kinch liked the solidarity angle, RAIN, topical, H...again only in Geordieland…HOWAY! Again Kinch got it…COME ON or COME ALONG. A, ANARCHY, our altoist was in his element. Finally M…MAJESTIC. A smiling Soweto Kinch looked around the  audience, knowing he could do it. To another killer hip-hop beat, Kinch, the freestyling rapper, went for it and, sure enough, seamlessly incorporated the words into his rap. Quick-witted is Kinch, his alto playing ain’t half bad either, a worthy headliner at DJazz The Durham City Jazz Festival. 
Russell.          

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