Total Pageviews

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

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); Sid White (drums). CANCELLED!

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Paul Skerritt @ Vespa Italian Bar & Steakhouse, Primrose Hill, Jarrow. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 483 3355.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Sound the Trumpets @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 05: Hot Club du Nord @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00. POSTPONED!
Thu 05: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Tommy Bentz Trio + Mark Croft Duo + George Shovlin & George Lamb @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Harbour View Speakeasy's USA blues double bill + Shovlin & Lamb!
Thu 05: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 06: Alcyona Mick @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 2:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Balo @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Fri 06: Lexer/Mayes/Noble + Semay Wu + Miman @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Vault, Hexham. 7:30pm. £20.00. Book in advance. Moreno with Alan Law, Paul Grainger & John Bradford.
Fri 06: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. 'Celebrating Oscar'.
Fri 06: Nu Brass Sounds: Big Brass Bash @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: TBC @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Emma Fisk’s Hot Club du Nord @ the Gala Theatre - April 5

Emma Fisk (Violin); James Birkett, Dave Harris (guitars); Bruce Rollo (double bass).
(Review by Brian Ebbatson/PHOTOS courtesy of Malcolm Sinclair)

Another full house for the Spring Gala Lunchtime Jazz Series, this one sold out back in January, such is the reputation that goes before Emma Fisk’s Hot Club du Nord. There were many first timers today, to the disappointment of regulars unable to get tickets. Across the river from the Studio the model trains slipped in, out and onwards from Durham station, while the colours of the trees down the Wear valley – the first greens of spring, the mauves, maroons and browns of winter – were resplendent in the spring sunshine. A clear blue sky with barely a cloud – that is until the encore.

The Reinhardt/Grappelli repertoire through from the 30s to the 50s (and then on with Grappelli’s various collaborations and groups) is a rich seam from which seasoned musicians such as these can fashion inspired new interpretations, so Hot Club du Nord’s sets, while featuring some of their recorded work, always feature something new for regular followers and much to enthuse newcomers to their music.
HCdN see themselves as paying homage to Reinhardt and Grappelli, so the set consists of Hot Club de France favourites rather than introducing their own compositions in the Hot Club style. Nothing wrong with that, especially as Emma takes pride in detailed introductions to each number, explaining its origin, when recorded and often some idiosyncratic story behind it.


The set opened upbeat with Fats Waller’s 1929 Honeysuckle Rose, a track featured on the CD Hot Club du Nord. James shared the lead with Emma on this first number, the audience seeming keen to show appreciation in anticipation, enthusiastically applauding every solo.  Johnny Green’s 1930 Body and Soul “written for Gertrude Lawrence, the first British star to appear on Broadway” (Emma) slowed things down for the second number, featuring all band members – an exquisite rendition.
Next came the first Django number, Swing 42, taking us forward to Django in wartime Occupied Paris, recorded (again Emma told us) with Hubert Rostaing on clarinet, Stéphane having stayed in London at outbreak of hostilities. Chugging Hot Club guitars, a lengthy solo from David, capturing Django’s percussive guitar tones, Emma soaring from deep notes to the highest octaves on her violin, this was getting very close to classic Hot Club de France.
Back to the 20’s for I Found a New Baby, first recorded by Clarence Williams in 1926, Bruce’s ‘slapping’ bass both in a featured solo and behind his fellow band members, capturing the feel of the earlier decade. Then the divine mid-‘30s Reinhardt – Grappelli composition Sweet Chorus, with Dave again taking two extended solos. Back to Fats Waller (and the ‘20s) for the ever popular Ain’t Misbehavin’, in James’ arrangement; then two ‘classic’ 1937 compositions from the two masters, Minor Swing and Daphne.
Over 100 people in the Gala Studio and music like this, so Emma cooled down the atmosphere with a magical rendering of  A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, a favourite of Stéphane’s enforced sojourn in wartime London (also on the HCdN CD). Then - as is their wont - the quartet closed the set with the 1925 jazz-age favourite Sweet Georgia Brown, another feature for Bruce’s bass, the band capturing the twenties feel once more.
The lengthy applause called for an encore, and although time was up, the audience called for Nuages, written by Django after being captured on the Swiss border and forcibly returned to Paris after his second attempt to escape the Occupation. “This graceful and eloquent melody”, as Django’s biographer wrote, “evoked the woes of the war that weighed on people's souls—and then transcended it all”. Transcendence, at least for a short time, for the audience, then back outside to the (much lesser) woes of our current reality, and a clear blue spring sky.
Brian E
PHOTOS

No comments :

Blog Archive