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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

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 1:00-2:45pm. Free.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Jude Murphy & Alan Law @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free.
Sun 22: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Richard Herdman @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: Remy CB Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Remi, 2024 Newcastle Uni graduate, superb soul/blues voice!

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Paul Booth with the Paul Edis Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert! SOLD OUT!

Monday, October 08, 2018

Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music @ The Bridge Hotel: Joe McPhee & Chris Corsano Duo - Oct. 7

Joe McPhee (tenor/trumpet); Chris Corsano (drums/objects).
(Review by Lance/Photos courtesy of Ken Drew).
To be truthful, I came to this, the closing gig of the festival, partly as a show of support for organiser Wes Stephenson who has done such a magnificent job of organising the multi-venue/multi-genre event and partly to check out Joe McPhee who, at the start of the festival, had created such a buzz and yet was only second banana in the billing at The Bridge.
Jazz, as in most art forms, is forever pursuing new directions. That quest for change invariably wins a few and loses a few. Last night's sell-out concert by sheer force of numbers came down on the side of the forward-looking element.
I arrived convinced I was going to hate it. But in music, as in life, hate can turn to love and vice-versa.
McPhee looked every inch the archetypal jazzman: pork pie hat, black shirt, black trousers and tenor saxophone at the ready, or so we thought. The only oddment being the red shoes.
No, that wasn't the only oddment, the other was the white trumpet with which he started off the opening piece.
The sound that emerged bore no resemblance to any trumpet sounds I'd ever heard - it was almost as if he was blowing the instrument without a mouthpiece or maybe the mouthpiece without an instrument.
Strange - but not as strange as the noises that erupted when he switched to tenor. It took my ears a while to absorb what was going on. The instrument looked like a tenor saxophone but the wild harmonics, the chords - yes, chords on a saxophone - made the excesses of the latterday Coltrane or Albert Ayler sound like Bud Freeman!
Then it happened! Damascus appeared on the horizon!
Have you ever dated a plain Jane or a boring Basil and looked for an excuse to make an early exit? Everyone has but, sometimes you find those protruding teeth suddenly seem to enhance his/her smile, fat becomes pleasingly plump and, before you know it, you're holding hands at midnight...
Such was the case, metaphorically speaking, at this gig. About quarter of an hour into the first number I stopped thinking saxophone and concentrated, instead, on sound. Sound and excitement were what this was all about. Propelled through the unchartered waters by Corsano and an array of 'objects' that I couldn't see but heard clearly, McPhee took me with him - me and 99 others - on a journey to another world where unconventional is conventional, odd is even and even is odd.
This was tremendous stuff and I wanted more which is the sign of a good anything - always leave them asking for more...
I didn't hang around for the headliners, I didn't want anything to erase the memory of what had gone before.
Photos.
Lance.
PS: Next year's festival will be held on the first weekend in October.

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