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Bebop Spoken There

Wendell Brunious: "Because the blues is not 1,4 and 5 or 1,4,5,2,1. You could wake up with a flat tyre or a headache this morning, that's the blues, man" - (DownBeat, Oct. 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

15878 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 885 of them this year alone and, so far, 83 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

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); Sid White (drums). CANCELLED!

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.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Sound the Trumpets @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 05: Hot Club du Nord @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00. POSTPONED!
Thu 05: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Tommy Bentz Trio + Mark Croft Duo + George Shovlin & George Lamb @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Harbour View Speakeasy's USA blues double bill + Shovlin & Lamb!
Thu 05: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 06: Alcyona Mick @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 2:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Balo @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Fri 06: Lexer/Mayes/Noble + Semay Wu + Miman @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Vault, Hexham. 7:30pm. £20.00. Book in advance. Moreno with Alan Law, Paul Grainger & John Bradford.
Fri 06: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. 'Celebrating Oscar'.
Fri 06: Nu Brass Sounds: Big Brass Bash @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: King Bees @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 07: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 10:15am. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Hot Club du Nord @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 07: Bugge & Niccols + Moore & Fairhall @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - All the Things You Are. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 07: Rie Nakajima @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Sat 07: Boys of Brass @ Salt Market Social, Liddell St., North Shields. From 7:00pm. £9.00. + bf.
Sat 07: Samuel Blaser Trio + Toxvaerd & Zeeberg + Muramatsu & Welch @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 08: Zoë Gilby Quintet + Ubunye @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Line-up inc. Tony Kofi. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 08: Tommy Bentz Band @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. USA blues band.

Mon 09: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 09: Cherise Adams-Burnett @ The Grove, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. .

Tue 10: Abbie Finn Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:30pm.

Friday, June 01, 2018

Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Millstone - May 31

(Review by Russell).
Last Thursday in the month down at the Millstone public house it’s the Strictly Smokin’ Big Band’s public rehearsal night. May’s session featured no fewer than six deps across all sections. It didn’t make a jot of difference with the band on form from the off and, what’s more, some thirty minutes before the downbeat all seats in the upstairs function room were occupied. It was a warm, humid evening yet the windows remained closed, perhaps to comply with licensing restrictions on noise levels.

So, the band hit the ground running with Alice Grace singing That Old Black Magic. That is reason enough to get along to the band’s rehearsal session – fantastic! Ja-Da with Michael Lamb leading the way with some blistering trumpet playing before the fabulous Alice Grace returned to confess You Make Me Feel So Young. Tyneside and the wider north east region boasts many fine singers, Ms Grace is right up there with the best of them and nothing but nothing could match her take on a Songs for Swingin’ Lovers’ masterpiece.


How D’Ya Like Your Eggs in the Morning? enquired F’reez of Alice, Alice, in turn, asking the same of F’reez. All good fun! A tremendous, lazily slow, arrangement of Bobby Hebb’s Sunny featured a soulful F’reez at his best. MD Lamb raided Dave Slonaker’s big band pad for something just a little more contemporary, choosing Point of Departure from the American’s Grammy-nominated Intrada album. A Bob Mintzer chart – ‘a Spanish thing’ said Lamb – maintained the contemporary feel with a bona fide American, trumpeter Pete Tanton, wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt, sharing the honours with tenor man Paul Gowland.

The interval; a rush to the downstairs’ bar, another pint of Workie Ticket and a nicely chilled Pinot. Right on cue Brian and Jimmy walked through the door. Never on time for the first set, but always in time for the second, they joined the queue at the bar.                       

A swinging Sweet Georgia Brown resumed matters, a contemporary piece with the band clapping as one opened and closed the unnamed piece (note to self…ask MD Michael Lamb about the title) and Quincy Jones’ Jessica’s Day mixed it up, keeping the orchestra on its toes. The deps were on top of matters, no question about it: Elliott Todd bolstered the trumpet section, Tom Dowling made a return to the ’bones, Niall Armstrong wielded baritone in Laurie Rangecroft’s absence, Ben Helm subbed for Pav on guitar, and the man at the back, bassist Paul Grainger, didn’t miss a trick. That leaves Dave Kerridge. Up from Teesside, DK is little heard on Tyneside yet when he does turn up he certainly makes a big impression. Alice Grace returned to sing Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right. It was a more than an alright evening down at the Millstone.   

Russell.

Michael Lamb MD, Elliott Todd, Pete Tanton, Dick Stacey  trumpets; David Barnes, Keiran Parnaby, Tom Dowling, John Flood trombones; Dave Kerridge, Paul Gowland, Steve Summers, Keith Robinson, Niall Armstrong reeds; Ben Helm guitar; Graham Don piano; Paul Grainger double bass; Guy Swinton drums; Alice Grace, F’reez vocals

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