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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

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.

Sat 08: Me Lost Me + Ceitidh Mac + Heather Ferrier @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 7:30pm. JNE.
Sat 08: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED from last week (Sat 01).
Sat 08: Robbie Reay @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Acoustic blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 08: Anth Purdy @ Mr Tighe's, Bebside, Northumberland. 8:30pm.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party 2018 @ Village Hotel, Newcastle - Nov 4 (evening)

(Review by Russell/Photos courtesy (and ©) of DJC de la Haye)

The final session of this year's Classic Jazz Party opened at seven thirty with the third of three
piano 'professors' - Morten Gunnar Larsen - playing to another packed main hall. As the evening's programme unfurled - Richard Pite's small group Gene Krupa Band session with Matthias Seuffert, reeds, Martin Litton, piano and string bassist Graham Hughes; the trumpets of Tomasso and Heitger working with an all European rhythm section on New Orleans hits the Big Apple; and Spats' Band giving Tom Langham free reign to showcase ragtime banjo, Al Bowlly vocals and more - thoughts turned to the set-piece finale, The Nichols-Duffee Chick Webb Orchestra

The earlier trumpet-led set included a faithful rendition of the ODJB's Dixieland One-Step and Wingy Manone's 1930 recording Tar Paper Stomp. The latter enticed the dancers to the floor once again...they'd been foxtrotting it (and other steps!) all weekend. Spats Langham's half-hour set eased the Village Hotel's audience into the final straight in relaxed fashion. The five-piece outfit - Spats, Dan Levinson, Emma Fisk, Morten Gunnar Larsen and Malcolm Sked - was demob-happy, its work almost done, although there was the little matter of another late night jam session to look forward to. Mr Sked was the exception, his services would be required for the ten o'clock send-off. 

Keith Nichols and American percussion virtuoso Josh Duffee collaborate throughout the year emailing parts back and forth across the Atlantic, suggesting numbers, floating ideas, and somehow it all comes together on the night. Suspend belief, imagine the Village Hotel near West Allotment is the Savoy Ballroom on Lenox Avenue, NYC, the year nineteen thirty something. Chick Webb is resident, Edgar Sampson's Don't Be That Way is a big hit (Sampson said he preferred Webb's version, musically speaking, but Benny Goodman's was financially rewarding!), this one hour set encapsulated the 'classic jazz' era. 

The Classic Jazz Party was almost done...almost. A dash through to the bar for the eleven o'clock jam session, this one to be led by Dan Levinson. The tall New Yorker had enjoyed his first visit to Tyneside (Levinson's CD sales went off the scale), the odds are he will return. The house band comprised Malo Mazurié, trumpet, Lars Frank on reeds, Spats Langham, guitar and banjo, Phil Rutherford on tuba and drummer Richard Pite. As house bands do, the ensemble played a few numbers prior to the sitters-in joining the fray. Suffice to say all CJP participants, with the exception of one or two who made an early departure to fly out/drive to their next engagement, got up to have a blow. At times the frontline nudged into double figures and from the rousing opening number - Indiana to Ain't Misbehavin' to countless others, the last time anyone glanced at the clock on the pub's stripped-back brick wall it said 2:40am. And still they played on. 

Next year's Classic Jazz Party runs from Friday 1 through to Sunday 3 November. Advance booking is recommended.  
Russell              

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