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Bebop Spoken There

Ambrose Akinmusire: “ I am certainly always aware of what the masses are doing. And when I see too many people going one way, I'm going another way - even when I don't know what's over that way". DownBeat, March, 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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Castillo Neuvo Trio + Conor Emery & His ‘Bones Band @ The Grove, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00. (£7.00. student).
Thu 21: Remi Banklyn + Chris Corcoran Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.50. Chicago blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime piano.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Nauta + Remy CB + Last Orders @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). Free.
Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 22: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 23: Jambone @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:30pm. Free (ticketed). End of term performance in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 23: Red Kites Jazz @ Rowlands Gill Community Centre NE39 1JB. 7:00pm. Tickets: £12.00. (gibsidecommunityfarm@gmail.com). A ‘Build a Barn’ fundraiser. BYOB, tea/coffee available.
Sat 23: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00. + bf (book in person at venue - no booking fee!). Featuring pianist Martin Litton.
Sat 23: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 24: Luis Verde @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Verde (alto sax); Joe Steels (guitar); John Pope (double bass); John Hirst (drums). Alto sax brilliance!
Sun 24: Elsie Franklin @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Country blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Sun 24: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Las Vegas Live with the Rat Pack @ The Forum, Billingham.
Sun 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Otterburn Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sun 24: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Note start time - 7:00pm.
Sun 24: Bold Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Friday, November 09, 2018

Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party 2018 @ Village Hotel, Newcastle - Nov 3 (evening)

(Review by Russell)
Saturday evening's opening piano set made something of a departure from the usual format with 'Professor' David Boeddinghaus being joined for the occasion by Dan Levinson playing clarinet and tenor saxophone. Fats Waller's My Very Good Friend the Milkman, Levinson blowing cool tenor on Deep Night, then Wake Up, Chillun, Wake Up found the duo in relaxed form before being joined by their countrymen Andy Schumm on clarinet and Mike Davis, trumpet, to play Every Evening.

Chicago Clarinets did what it said on the tin. A formidable quartet of Windy City clarinetists - Johnny Dodds, Jimmie Noone, Omer Simeon and Pee Wee Russell - challenged the Classic Jazz Party's liquorice stickers to put up or shut up. Andy Schumm, usually heard playing cornet, threw his hat in the ring, Ewan Bleach didn't need any encouragement and Matthias Seuffert oozed class, safe in the knowledge that he was a match for anyone, past or present. A short set - all of thirty minutes - found the trio wailing for all they were worth from Chicago down the Mississippi to N'Awlins and back again. More, please, next year!


The Austin High School Gang surfaced once more in Bud Freeman's Summa Cum Laude. Dan Levinson put together a classy Anglo-American eight-piece band to play a short set centred around Freeman's late thirties period. Walter Donaldson's provocatively titled Oh, Baby (Don't Say No, Say Maybe) was good fun and Levinson must have felt right at home flanked by fellow Americans  Mike Davis, trumpet, Jeff Barnhart, piano and Josh Duffee, drums. Affable Graham Hughes played trombone, Jacob Ullberger alternated between banjo and guitar and string bass exponent Henry Lemaire steered a steady course.

New Yorker Levinson told a good story or two, not least the one about the time he lived on the fourth floor of a NYC apartment block and on the floor below lived a Mr. E. Condon. Mr Levinson got to know Mr Condon. At next year's CJP your correspondent hopes to interview Mr. L. Satanic Blues (ODJB, 1919), I Need Some Pettin' and more Wolverines in the form of Copenhagen rounded off a fine set. 

Nine o'clock, the first of two sets that no one wanted to miss. The CD stall closed for the night, it was standing room only for Rico's Louis. Enrico Tomasso, later on Monday to be declared the winner in the British Jazz Awards' trumpet category, produced a superb performance playing the music of Louis Armstrong. As a trumpet player, Rico takes some beating and his Satchmo vocals are as convincing as any. You're Driving Me CrazyI Cover the WaterfrontIf I Could be with You One Hour Tonight, it doesn't get much better. As a boy, Rico met Louis, all these years later he thought it high time he visited the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NYC. In 2017 he did just that. Tomasso said that having met the great man he received the red carpet treatment. And, an honour bestowed on very few people, he was permitted to play Louis' trumpets! During his visit, Tomasso met friend of the Classic Jazz Party, Michael Steinman, and here at the Village Hotel he dedicated (Was I to Blame for) Falling in Love with You to the noted jazz historian. 

Sitting alongside Tomasso were the Americans Mike Davis and Andy Schumm. One wonders what they were thinking! Struttin' with Some BarbecueThem There EyesWhen It's Sleepy Time Down South, what a session!

Follow that! The final concert of the evening - Ellington in the 30s - led by Claus Jacobi with maestro Keith Nichols as Duke, was as good a way as any to attempt to maintain the collective high in the Village Hotel's function suite. Mood Indigo (Jamie Brownfield playing the muted trumpet part), Alabamy Home and Sophisticated Lady (Nicolle Rochelle, vocals), this was great stuff. The band, including Heitger, Mazurié, Fry, Exall, Spats (banjo and guitar) and Ward - was in irrepressible form. To borrow from Nichols, a 'tear-arse' Merry Go Round had to be heard to be believed. Black and Tan Fantasy restored a semblance of order but not for long, you rug cutters! Yes, I've got to be a Rug Cutter had 'em at it again, In My Solitude took it down once more, at least for a while until Nichols and the orchestra went out on Rockin' in Rhythm and It Don't Mean a Thing. Tremendous, absolutely tremendous. 

Quick, to the bar, it's eleven o'clock, time for another late night jam session!

Party time in the Village Hotel's on-site pub! Jackets off, ties loosened, beers in hand, the roll call of sitters-in became somewhat blurred at half-past silly o'clock. King Oliver's Riverside Blues for starters, an ever-lengthening frontline blowing for fun supported by an ever-changing rhythm section (see photo, Josh Duffee, drums). American Jim Fryer (see photo), classy trombone player that he is, took the mic for a vocal chorus on Viper Mad, then, all bets were off...Analucia Tomasso sat-in. Levels behind her, Analucia accompanied her father Enrico on the trip up north. Well, what do you know? Drop Me Off in Harlem sang Tomasso. Ms Tomasso is a natural! If you had been standing next to your BSH correspondent with a feather...Mean to Me sang Analucia. Amazing! You run a jazz club? Book Ms Analucia Tomasso now before she hits the big time. Midnight came and went, one o'clock came and went, two o'clock came and...zzzz. 
Russell.

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