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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 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

17328 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 612 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (Sept. 5).

From This Moment On ...

September

Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. £25.00. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 07: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.£10.00. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 07: Alligator Gumbo @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £15.00.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 08: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 08: Giles Strong Quartet @ BAA Fest, Brownrigg Lodges, Bellingham. 2:40pm.
Sun 08: Eva Fox & the Jazz Guys @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 08: Graham Hardy’s Eclectic Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 09: Mark Williams Trio @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 09: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 10: ???

Wed 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 11: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 11: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 11: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 12: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 12: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:30pm. £4.00. ‘A Great Day in Harlem’.
Thu 12: The Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Pete Tanton & co.
Thu 12: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Donna Hewitt, Bill Watson, Dave Archbold, Adrian Beadnell, Mark Hawkins.

Fri 13: Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Two pianos, two pianists! SOLD OUT!
Fri 13: Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Dilutey Juice @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.00. adv..
Fri 13: Ray Stubbs R & B All-stars @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Classic blues.

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Emma Fisk's Hot Club du Nord @ Sage Gateshead - June 20.

Emma Fisk (violin); James Birkett (guitar); Dave Harris (guitar); Bruce Rollo (bass).
(Review by Lance/Photo courtesy of Billy Nicholson).
Second set and Venuti/Lang have morphed into Grappelli/Reinhardt. The year is now 1934, Eddie Lang has died tragically young and Fisk has replaced the short, flowing dress with a svelte,  champagne coloured, figure-hugging satin dress evocative of a pre-war Parisian nightclub hostess in Pigalle. For his part, Birkett has augmented his apparel with red socks; apparently a Django fashion faux pas in the eyes of Grappelli but hey! this is 1934, the year that Cole Porter wrote Anything Goes
To complete the line-up they were joined by the immaculately suited Bruce Rollo on double bass and the more casually attired Dave Harris on guitar.
Dinah, is there any tune finer? opened the time capsule and we were off to a flying start. Unlike the original Hot Club de France where Django was the sole guitar soloist leaving the other two guitarists, including his brother Joe, to chug away in a purely rhythmic, and often monotonous, capacity, Emma Fisk's Hot Club du Nord has two guitarists both superb soloists in their own right.
Paradoxically, listening to the original Venuti/Lang recordings and comparing them with the slightly later sides cut by Grappelli and Reinhardt, I find the former more modern and swingier than the latter. Emma and her 'boys' turn this around primarily because of the lighter rhythmic feel they employ.
Belleville; Honeysuckle Rose; I'm Confessin'; Viper's Dream; Exactly Like You; Minor Swing; If You Only Knew (?) - an impressive feature for Harris - and Lady Be Good were all showstoppers and the encore, unsurprisingly, was Nuages. A Hot Club concert without Nuages would be like a Glenn Miller gig without Moonlight Serenade.
Beautiful.
I don't think I've ever posted two separate reviews by myself of the two sets of a concert but, on this occasion, it was justified as both sets stood tall in their own right.
Which set was the best?
Mmm... have to flip a coin on that one.
Would you believe it? The coin has landed upright on its edge!
Lance. 
PS: Gig of the Month so far.

1 comment :

Patti said...

I read somewhere that Django was inspired by a photo of George Raft, to adopt the red socks and tux style. Whatever! He'd have looked and sounded great - as did Emma and her boys last night - it was a fabulous night!

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