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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise 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

15229 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 248 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (March 20).

From This Moment On ...

March

Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: FILM: Mo' Better Blues @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Fri 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Scarth Hall, Staindrop, Co. Durham. 8:00pm. £10.00.
Fri 24: Archipelago + Bulbils @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 25: Vermont Big Band @ Walker Community Centre, Walker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Fundraiser for Benfield Juniours Football Club. Hot food available, BYOB.
Sat 25: John Logan & Friends @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rat Pack, Motown etc. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

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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