Total Pageviews

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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Training @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 2:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘A workshop for musical improvisers’. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Wylam Village Institute, Church Road, Wylam NE41 8AP. Doors 7:00pm. Tickets £15.00. + £1.50. bf, available from: www.gigantic.com.
Sat 05: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Bright Street Big Band @ Washington Arts Centre. From 7:00pm. £12.00. Bright Street Big Band on stage at 7:30pm, preceded at 7:00pm by a swing dance taster session.
Sat 05: J.A.M. String Collective + Tara Cunningham + The Flame @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Sat 05: Heavy Drunk @ Anarchy Brewery, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.00. + £1.50. bf. ‘Mississippi Delta Blues Experience’ feat. Heavy Drunk, Watermelon Slim & Leonardo Giuliani.
Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Night @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. Nicols, Dalling ao. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 05: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Swarland Village Hall NE65 9JG. 8:00pm. £12.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm (12:30pm doors). £7.50.
Sun 06: Luis Verde Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 06: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: Catriona Bourne Quartet + Heather Ferrier + Emma Johson’s Gravy Boat @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & The Globe.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30-8:30pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Fri 11: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: The Jazz Quartet + Stratosphonic @ Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £15.00. A Rotary Club of Hexham event. The Jazz Quartet (Jude Murphy & co), Stratosphonic (blues/rock).
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thursday, November 08, 2018

CD Review: Jazz City UK Volume 2: The Jam Sessions

(Review by Lance).
Newcastle seems to have more jam sessions going on than Kansas City did in the 1930s! There appears to be a jam on every corner which is great for young musicians dipping their feet into the water but isn't so good for gigging pro/semi-pro musicians. Most of the jams are free so that some punters tend to shy away from gigs with a ticket price (+ booking fee). You could of course charge for the jams but then the fickle fans would, maybe, spend their dosh on a band they know rather than be on the ground floor of burgeoning talent.

However, that's a digression, as I've just been listening to a jam that I'd have mortgaged the house for - such is the standard of the music.
Recorded in Birmingham in 1984 and 1987 this is probably as close as we'll ever get to matching the legendary Buck Clayton Jam Sessions and possibly better than many of the JATP concerts recorded by Norman Granz.
Strong words I know but, look at the musicians involved and you'll see where I'm coming from.

Carolina Diner, by Humph, is the only original but, as originals go, is there anything finer? Humph, Williams, King, Morrissey, Barnes (J), Lemon, Taylor, Green and Ganley all diss that suggestion with solos that both the audience and myself applauded enthusiastically. Them at the Grand Hotel, me within the confines of Chez Lance where even the passing Metro Rapid Transit couldn't distract me from my metaphorical applause.

If I Could Be With You: A duo track by Humph and Brian Lemon. Ruby Braff and Ellis Larkins ride again!

Cherokee: Martin Taylor flies solo. Even at this, relatively early stage of his career he was the one they all had to beat. Few, if any, ever did. The magnificent way he incorporates bass lines makes me wonder if, contrary to the notes, Dave Green was also playing or does Martin have three hands?

Frankie & Johnny: From the 1984 sessions at The Arena in Cannon Hill Park, Humph informs us that the original title was Frankie & Albert! Morrissey blows earthy tenor, Humph, tightly muted trumpet, super cool guitar from Douglas. Crimmons and Shepherd are up there with them.

Crazy Rhythm: A swinger with an unusual twist - for the final two choruses, Fairweather, Williams, Colville and Turner edge the previous frontline into the wings - a ploy favoured by Eddie Condon!

Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me; The four horns from the previous track remain on board, driven along by Pyne, Douglas, Weston and Richardson.

The Hucklebuck and Honeysuckle Rose have just about everyone who was there in 1984 blowing their socks off, however, in between, there was some Jumping at the Woodside.

I always remember Woodside, not from the various Basie versions, but from a Sunday lunchtime jam at The Tally Ho in Kentish Town which was later recaptured on record. The 'one more time' ending that brought the house down then (1963) is used here, on Honeysuckle Rose.
Tremendous! Unmissable! Is Volume One still available? The hunt (hint) is on.
Lance. 
Available on Big Bear Records BEARCD 57.
Humphrey Lyttleton, Digby Fairweather (trumpets); Roy Williams, Roy Crimmons (trombone); Bruce Turner, Pete King (altos); Dick Morrissey (tenor); Dave Shepherd, Randy Colville (clarinets); Brian Lemon, Mick Pyne (piano); Dave Green, Harvey Weston (bass); Martin Taylor, Jim Douglas (guitar); Johnny Richardson, Allan Ganley (drums).

1 comment :

Lance said...

In the notes, the late Benny Green who hosted the 1987 evening said, "There is no more deserving sub-section of the world of art than the jazz musician. He is taken for granted, neglected and underrated. He is passed by when the goodies of what is laughingly called our civilised world are handed out, he doesn't get his picture in the paper and doesn't become famous."
That was in 1987, is it very different in 2018?

Blog Archive