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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 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

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Mon 23: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 4:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Mon 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free. Business as usual!.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 27: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sat 28: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 11:30am. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 28: Fri 20: Castillo Nuevo @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 28: Jude Murphy, Rich Herdman & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 28: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Stepney Bank, Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sun 29: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 29: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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

Monday, March 11, 2019

Sunday @ Bix Fest, Racine, Wisconsin - March 10

(Review by Russell)

Sunday at this thirtieth edition of Bix Fest coincided with Bix Beiderbecke's birth date - March 10 (1903). Born in Davenport, Iowa, the legendary cornetist could never have imagined that 116 years after his death there would be more than one festival celebrating his contribution to jazz including Bix Fest here in Racine, Wisconsin some 200 miles northeast of his birthplace. To mark Bix's birth date there would be cake for all Bixians.  

The line-up on the final day was, in effect, a reprise of Saturday evening's concert. Andy Schumm returned with his Cellar BoysReginald Robinson and John Reed-Torres 
enthralled the capacity audience with yet more spellbinding ragtime piano, Milwaukee's Sweet Sheiks made the short trip down the freeway a second time and the Shake 'Em Up gals were around to close the party. 

The Cellar Boys' Paul Asaro introduced Andy Schumm's arrangement of a Gershwin number - Yankee Doodle Blues - saying it was one he hadn't come across.  The band had rehearsed it and, with the music in front of him, pianist Asaro and his fellow Chicagoans made a grand job of it. Schumm's sensational hot tenor playing throughout the weekend will be a lasting memory of the band's performance. If you happen to be in Chicago on a Sunday get along to the Honky Tonk BBQ as the Cellar Boys maintain a weekly residency at the joint. Alternatively, Schumm will be on Tyneside in November at the Classic Jazz Party. Go hear him!

To hear one world class exponent of ragtime piano is a treat, to hear two of them together on the same platform was the rarest of treats. Reginald Robinson and John Reed-Torres are virtuoso performers on a mission to not only take the music to the widest possible audience but to write new rags, some of them commissioned pieces, thus adding to the form's existing, extensive library of familar and not so familiar tunes. In addition to their undoubted brilliance, Messrs Robinson and Reed-Torres engaged with the Bix Fest audience in an easy-going manner which made them a pleasure to listen to. 

Closing Bix Fest 2019 was the Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band. The all-female six-piece band from New Orleans is a hit wherever it goes and this Racine audience loved 'em - that's Marla, Chloe, Haruka, Molly, Julie and Defne. A trumpet-clarinet-trombone frontline with 'real deal' vocals supported by a superb rhythm section of guitar, bass and washboard, the Shake 'Em Ups are 24-carat festival headliner quality. Chloe Feoranzo's vocals on Empty Bed Blues will live long in the memory. Bix Fest 2019 will also be a treasured, life-long memory. 
Russell.

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