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Bebop Spoken There

Kelly Sill: "Just because everyone is playing through the changes in the same time doesn't mean they're actually playing together" - (JazzTimes March/April 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

15260 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 279 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (March 29).

From This Moment On ...

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 01: Jambone @ Sage Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (book online). A YMP! event in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 01: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 04: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 04: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Bradley Johnston (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations. Feat. John Pope, Marie Shreer, John Garner.
Thu 06: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 06: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Note earlier start time.

Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 07: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 07: Finntet + Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.
Fri 07: TBA @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Blind Pig Blues Club.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Vermont Big Band @ Cullercoats Crescent Club - October 13

(Review by Russell)   
Six and two, 62, all the threes, 33, top of the shop, blind 90, legs, 11…house!  There isn’t anything quite like a game of bingo down the club especially if you’re waiting on one number. Oh, well, better luck next time. In between the flyer and the main house, the sounds of a big band broke out in the upstairs concert room of the Crescent Club in Cullercoats.

The Vermont Big Band made a return visit to Cullercoats having played a successful concert during the summer months. The band’s MD, Chris Kaberry, must have been a happy man when he surveyed the scene – Saturday evening, a full house, who said the big band era was of yesteryear? No fewer than six saxophones, a regulation four strong trumpet section, a mere three trombones, piano, bass and drums, and a band vocalist. Two swinging sets of forties’ big band tunes, the popular hits of the day with one or two 24 carat selections from the jazz canon.

MD Kaberry will be known to some from his tenure in the Customs House Big Band, although on this occasion he restricted himself to waving his metaphorical baton. In the Mood got the show underway (think positively it got the tune out of the way nice and early), Sweet Georgia Brown (that’s more like it), ah! say hello to Vermont’s singer, Ms Beth Tippins, joining the orchestra to belt out At Last. Tippins, shoe-less, stayed on for another - You Do Something to Me - before vacating the stage for the first of several big-hitting instrumentals featuring drummer Calum Montgomery on a spirited take on Caravan.

Pennsylvania 6-5000 (hey, it’s a good ‘un, admit it!), followed up by a chart the Ray Chester Big Band must have played thousands of times - Little Brown Jug. Youthful Peter Elliott, playing tenor, grabbed the lion’s share of the solos, although others in the sections did chip in from time to time. Vocalist Tippins returned to the stage and by now was finding her range singing I Get a Kick Out of You and Time After Time. The first set drew to a close with Montgomery drumming up the proverbial on Sing, Sing, Sing.

Band members made a dash…to the bar, the gents, the ladies (six in the sections), some venturing outside to take the (balmy) air. Meanwhile, a hush descended on a still crowded concert room as the main house bingo got underway. Six and two, 62 etc. No luck, what’s new?

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy rallied the troops as the second half got underway. The dancers (lindy, ballroom, other) took to the floor – Night and Day (not quite Fred & Ginger out there on the floor but full marks for effort), Tuxedo Junction (and Dutch courage fuelled by a Cullercoats’ cocktail or two) tempted a few more couples, the evening continued to swing along. A Night in Tunisia challenged the trumpets, and, all things considered, they acquitted themselves well. Cheek to Cheek sang shoe-less Beth, later to give way to the boys and girls of the orchestra on Jumpin’ at the Woodside. The band won an encore - The Lady is a Tramp - and MD Kaberry was well prepared for a further encore with a second ‘spare’ in the pad in the shape of String of Pearls. Cullercoats Crescent Club on a Saturday evening, a full house, a canny night out, they’re sure to do it again.          
Russell.

Chris Kaberry (MD); Mike Graham, Steve Crockett, Wendy Innes, Kate Brown (trumpets); Jamie Smith, John Flood, Colin Winship (trombones); Felicity Ripley, Katharine Loughney, Ben Gibbon (alto sax), Peter Elliott), Alan Marshall (tenor sax), Russell Rogers (baritone sax); Caitlin Pang (keyboards); James Thompson (bass guitar); Calum Montgomery (drums); Beth Tippins (vocals).

1 comment :

Chris Kaberry said...

Next gig is at Holy Saviours Parish Hall on 2nd March 2019. 8pm start.

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