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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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

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.

Friday, September 28, 2018

Strictly Smokin' Big Band @ The Millstone - September 27

(Review by Russell)
A final rehearsal session before the band's big day in Greater Manchester. It doesn't come much more prestigious than a Sunday lunchtime engagement at Wigan Jazz Club, a club renowned for its promotion of classic big band jazz. 

This Strictly Smokin' Millstone set was played as if in concert mode, a bit like a Premier League footballer training during the week at match day intensity. The first team, with the exception of a couple of absentees (Alice Grace was on the treatment table), ripped through several of the numbers that will hit Wigan. 

A pint of the world's best beer - Big Lamp's Prince Bishop - at hand, it was standing room only in the upstairs function room as MD Michael Lamb raised his baton. The Girl from Ipanema arranged for big band by local hero Paul Booth with featured solos from Jamie Toms, tenor, and the SSBB's leader, the band was 'strictly smokin''. Mike Abene's Knarf for the '63 Maynard Ferguson band heard first, Keith Robinson's fiery alto sax, and then Pete Tanton's forceful trumpet blast. Abene's arrangement of Benny Golson's Whisper Not for Ferguson's '67 outfit set up solo opportunities for tenor man Paul Gowland, Lamb, trumpet, and Jamie Toms' contrasting, 'no hurry' tenor work. 

No Alice Grace tonight. Our poorly superstar being confined to barracks gave her friend Jennifer Davies a rare opportunity to sing with the band. Mean to Me sang Jen. Hey Alice, you'd better watch out! Only kidding, then again...

Ecaroh - that's Horace Silver, to you - is a winning tune with Pav Jedrzejewski's hypnotic riff echoing through the sections (Lamb, trumpet, Chris Kurgi-Smith, trombone, Robinson, reeds), Wigan will like this one. 

And they'll love Dr Feelgood! Jen knocked 'em for six, a bluesy belter with Pav digging deep and dirty and a collector's item to boot...Gordon Marshall stepping up to the soloist's plate! MD Lamb noted the band's applause (alongside that of the audience) for our depping vocalist: That must have been decent, even the band was clapping!

The London Suite (parts II & III) linked the SSBB's recent Hoochie Coochie gig in that part one of the above suite was heard at Warren T's Pilgrim Street establishment...a circle squared. Steve Summers never delivers anything other than first-rate solos and the band's take on Round Midnight found Summers (later to blow his EWI) in fine form on the alto sax feature.     

Jen Davies returned one more time to send us on our way, and the Strictly Smokin' to Wigan, singing The One I Love Belongs to Sombody Else. A cracking session, Wigan is sure to go well, and in a couple of weeks or so the SSBB will be back on home ground rocking them in the pews at St J's and St B's (that's St James' and St Basil's Church, Fenham, Newcastle). Make a note of the date - Thursday October 18. 

Special mention for Ian Wynd. Last heard with the Strictly Smokin' at the band's 2017 Gosforth Civic Theatre Christmas shows, our depping drummer read some fiendishly difficult parts and made it look easy. Michael Lamb, and the absent Guy Swinton, would be the first to acknowledge Wynd's efforts.  
Russell. 
Strictly Smokin' Big Band: Michael Lamb, MD, Pete Tanton, Gordon Marshall, Dick Stacey (trumpets); Chris Kurgi-Smith, Mark Ferris, Chris Gray, John Flood (trombones); Jamie Toms, Paul Gowland, Steve Summers, Keith Robinson, Laurie Rangecroft (reeds); Pawel Jedrzejewski (guitar); Mike Bowman (keyboards); Michael Whent (bass guitar); Ian Wynd (drums); Jennifer Davies (vocals)    


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