Total Pageviews

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

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.

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: TBC @ 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: 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.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Jam Session @ the Black Swan - October 30.

Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Grainger (bass); Russ Morgan (drums) + Pete Tanton (trumpet/vocal); Nick Gould (tenor); Jeremy McMurray (keys); Michael Lamb (trumpet); Steve Summers (tenor); Kate O'Neill (vocal); Jamie Toms (tenor); David 'Showtime' Gray (trombone); Ian White (tenor).
(Review by Lance).
A brand new dawn - if 8pm can be classed as dawn - for the former Jazz Café Jam which has upped sticks and moved to the nearby Black Swan Bar and Arts Venue. The move is a masterstroke and, at last, we have a jazz joint that isn't 'a joint'.
The Jazz Café served its purpose but, somehow, despite or perhaps because of the sanitisation, it lacked the charisma of the old Crombie days. Maybe I'm an old sentimentalist but the past is past and the future lies at 59 Westgate Rd.

Previously, we've had singers unlimited, an alto summit and, on occasion, more drummers than the band of the Royal Scots Guards. However, tonight it was a case of "Anyone for tenors?" with four of the finest jousting for the crown.
It didn't begin with a slugfest - that came later - sedately and sensitively, the house trio, who were in brilliant form all evening, christened the room with easy, tasteful versions of Bill Evans' Peri's Scope and Without a Song. We weren't without a song for long. Pete Tanton, an American in Newcastle and a SSBB trumpet player, after a spirited Straight No Chaser, exercised his vocal chops on But Not For Me - trumpet and vocal à la Chet.

Pete was joined on stage by the first of the tenors - all the way down from Edinburgh - Nick Gould. The Scot, always a welcome visitor, and the American had a blast on Sonny Rollins' Oleo. This was turning into an international affair with two Englishmen, an Irishman, an American and a Scotsman strutting down Green Dolphin St. and, somehow or other, ending up on St. Thomas!

Michael Lamb and Steve Summers, two more escapees from SSBB, kept the trumpet /tenor format alive but with the addition of Jeremy McMurray on keys for Too Close For Comfort and Sam Rivers' Beatrice. Too close for comfort? Nah, this was so good we couldn't get close enough!

The rhythm section needed a break so we were treated to a couple of duo numbers from Jeremy and the emotive voice of Kate O'Neill. Kate never gives less than 110%, Jeremy neither and God Bless the Child was storming into the home straight when proceedings came to an abrupt halt with a malfunctioning keyboard pedal. However, troupers that they are, the offending item was quickly cured and they were off again with the minimum of delay. 'S Wonderful followed before les tout ensemble returned to give us Fever.

Enter tenor number three. Jamie Toms (another SSBB blower) hooked up with the self-effacing (not!) slider David Gray. Showtime was on form stunning the audience with a display of triple-tongued-tromboning. Bravo! Not to be outdone, Jamie Toms laid his cards on the table for the imminent battle royal with some cool sounds whilst Jeremy was in walnut cracking mode. Chick Corea's 500 Miles High had us, the listeners, even higher or was it the Old Peculier ale?

Tenor number four was thrown in at the deep end. Nick Gould (it's his birthday today - MHR), Steve Summers and Jamie Toms had all blown previously but Ian White was in the same position as Androcles when thrown to the lions. However, like the legendary figure, he emerged with his head held high after all four tenors and Showtime had worked out on It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing - It meant plenty to all concerned.

As I left, Ian White was blowing a tasty version of You Don't Know What Love is, this had been an impressive first night at an impressive new venue.
Lance.

No comments :

Blog Archive