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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15867 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 874 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (Sept. 25).

From This Moment On ...

September

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Paul Wight (drums).

Monday, March 18, 2019

Lickety Split @ The Globe Jazz Bar, Newcastle - March 17

Eddie Bellis (trombone); Callum Mellis (trumpet/flugel); Alan Marshall (alto sax); Jeremy McMurray (piano); Alan Rudd (bass guitar); Bradley Johnston (guitar); Paul Wight (drums).
(Review/PHOTOS by Lance)

It was fortunate in one sense that Paul Gowland was absent from the line-up as, otherwise, the band would have outnumbered the audience. Understandable as a three-band fundraiser up the road at Blaydon proved to be too strong an alternative attraction.

This was an unfortunate clash of dates as Lickety Split are a band well worth hearing. Their take on the West Coast jazz of the 1950s mixed with a less clinical approach results in a fine swinging ensemble.
Mellis, less flamboyant than his predecessor Kevin Eland, nevertheless has plenty of fire in his solos, as well as displaying a touch of lyricism when blowing flugelhorn on I Remember Clifford. Clifford Brown was well represented with Lou Donaldson's Blues Walk and Sandu. Marshall sounding like Art Pepper on the former whilst the latter had impressive solos from  McMurray and Johnston.

Blue Monk was played faster than the original over a shuffle (ish) rhythm. Wayne Shorter was represented in the form of One by One and Miles got on the score sheet with All Blues - a tune I think I've heard once too often although the audience which, by now, did outnumber the band, loved it.

Whisper Not, followed by an unidentified number led to Curious George which closed the set. Curious George, it seems, was composed and arranged by one Jim Martin and was, arguably, the best number of the night.

A pint of Doom Bar Ale was up to the usual Jazz Bar standard fortifying me for the next set which opened with a rousing version of Del Sasser with, needless to say, some good blowing on the Cannonball classic. Groovin' High was pure 52nd St. with the contrafactual basis (Whispering) thinly disguised. A great bop arrangement.

Stolen Moments had Marshall going for broke with McMurray upping the ante and the others neck and neck to the coda.

The (official) last number - Straight No Chaser - took us out on a high, or so we thought!
Coats and hats donned, instruments dismantled, glasses emptied I made for the door before a voice in the wilderness cried out "Encore". Maybe one of the band is a ventriloquist! Within seconds, time was rewound and Sister Sadie was strutting her stuff. Personally, I'm not a musical Oliver Twist. If I'm at a symphony concert after the orchestra has played Beethoven's eighth I don't expect them to busk his ninth just because someone shouts for more.

That aside, it was a splendid evening. Bandleader Bellis has put together a good crew, directing and playing tasteful trombone with a rhythm section that kicks ass and front-liners who know the score.
Lance
PS: And each number didn't end with meaningless rounds of fours!

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