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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

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.
The 10: Classic Swing @ Carlisle Rugby Club, Warwick Rd., Carlisle. 8:30pm. £9.
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: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
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). CANCELLED!
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 11: Mo Scott Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 12: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Michael Woods @ Victoria Tunnel, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv.). Country blues guitar & vocals.
Sat 12: Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.28, £11.16, £9.04. A two-track recording launch gig.
Sat 12: Stuart Turner @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rockabilly, rhythm & blues etc. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 12: Lapwing Jazz Trio @ The Ship Inn, Low Newton. 8:00pm. Free. New trio: Paula Whitty, Richard Herdman, Jude Murphy.

Sun 13: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Emma Wilson @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 13: Catfish Keith @ The Cluny. 7:00pm. Country blues.
Sun 13: Cath Stephens & Paul Grainger @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Stephens & Grainger, one third of a triple bill.
Sun 13: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 14: Black is the Color of My Voice @ Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by Nina Simone, performed by Nicholle Cherrie.

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano), Paul Grainger (double bass), Bailey Rudd (drums).

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Christmas Celebration @ Coventry Cathedral - A Concert of Sacred Music by Duke Ellington - Dec. 29

(Review by Cormac Loane).
As a resident of the West Midlands for over 30 years, I have often visited the beautiful and inspiring Coventry Cathedral. And, each time I have done so, I have recalled a photograph I saw in Jazz Journal during the mid-1960s of the Duke Ellington Orchestra performing there. So when I found out recently that ITV footage of that 1966 concert was to be shown at the Cathedral on December 29 (last night!) this year, this was too good an opportunity to miss. 

The concert was the European premiere of Duke Ellington’s first Concert of Sacred Music, and it reportedly came about because Ellington, having heard about the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962, contacted the Cathedral authorities to ask if they would be interested in hosting the event. A film of the concert, shown on ITV television at the time, was thought to have been lost long ago. However, it was recently rediscovered, and through the work of Ghost Town, an archive television project, working in collaboration with other local organisations, the film has now been digitally restored in preparation for this, the first public viewing in over 50 years.

When I arrived at the Cathedral an hour before the scheduled viewing I was amazed to find it already packed out with the licensed bar and gentle background music giving this place of worship something of the ambiance of a jazz club. 

The black and white film, entitled Celebration, had characteristic 1960s camera work and the sound quality was less than brilliant, but it demonstrated the incredible innovation and creativity of Duke Ellington’s sacred music. This was quite different to the music I had heard at his 70th Birthday Concert which I attended (along with Lance) at Newcastle City Hall in 1969. Although equally brilliant, the City Hall concert comprised mainly performances of Ellington’s standard jazz repertoire.

The Celebration film opened with New World A-Comin’, a really interesting solo piano performance by Ellington after which the Duke spoke briefly, but inspiringly, about the new world he was looking forward to – “a world without war” and “a world without categorisation.” It was particularly appropriate for these words to be spoken in Coventry, the City of Peace and Reconciliation, and they are, arguably, as relevant today as they were in 1966. This was followed by an extremely slow and haunting performance of Come Sunday, featuring  Johnny Hodges (my alto sax hero until Lance sold me my first Charlie Parker record at Windows in 1969). In the Beginning God included almost operatic-style singing from baritone George Webb, an exciting tenor sax solo from Paul Gonsalves and choral contributions from the Cliff Adams Singers – well-known at the time for their long-running BBC radio show Sing Something Simple. The concert continued with the calypso-inspired West Indian Pancake and ended with La Plus Belle Africaine, featuring a fantastic drum solo from Sam Woodyard (using mainly hands rather than sticks) and a bowed double bass solo from John Lamb. In the course of the concert, we also heard beautifully controlled and mellow playing from clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton and trombonist Lawrence Brown, as well as unbelievably high-note (yet tasteful) trumpet playing from Cat Anderson.

It was a truly memorable occasion and a very special experience to hear Duke Ellington’s wonderful Sacred Music in the same beautiful space where it was performed and recorded all those years ago.
Cormac.

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