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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Cheltenham Jazz Festival: Swing Out Sister @ Town Hall – May 5.

(Review by Steve T)

When I first met the future Mrs T, Corrine Drewery had the second best bob in the world. Both bobs would disappear in time but the Swing Out Sister's would return and she'd get the best bob in the world, at the age of Alan Barnes. They're one of the groups we both liked, though unlike Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, Earth Wind and Fire, Roxy Music and Level 42, we actually like much the same lineup and records.

Doing lots of live jazz in recent years, I realised I missed the big popstar entrance: the fifteen-minute delay, the background music and lights on the stage, the band arrive, then the number one sister. Number two sister on vocals and percussion, a drummer, bass, guitar, trumpet and reeds and the other permanent member, with whom she writes the bulk of the songs, Andy Connell on keyboards.

I always thought the chairs should come out for this one but it was no surprise to find us on the very back row. Last year I paid for priority booking and rang at - by their admission - precisely the moment the tickets went on sale, but ended up with worse tickets than this, due to 'technical' issues at their end and was told priority booking was a lottery, so tough. As it happened this allowed us to enjoy ourselves without the glares of the majority and our corner became a magnet for like-minded people, though some tried to incite others to join in, which I didn't agree with.

I'd feared they may just do the new album and the choicest cuts from their back catalogue, but I'm reliably informed Don't Give the Game Away was the only one from the latest set. As at Sage 2 in Gateshead a few years back, they opened with their other hit Surrender and went through many of their best-loved songs from the last thirty odd years, including You on My Mind and Not Gonna Change. Their version of Barbara Acklin's Am I the Same Girl? had the ladies in the audience swaying in their seats, though they didn't reference the title track from Donald Byrd's popular jazz-funk album Places and Spaces, as on their recent reworking of it.

She told us they started out as a pop group but then got jazzy, making them too jazzy for pop but not jazzy enough for jazz, though soul fans, at least in this country, seem to still have a fondness for them. Popular around the world, and particularly in Japan, I don't know when she last went to a jazz club in this country, as she beckoned us to get rowdy on the basis that it's jazz, though only our corner responded. 

We finally got our chance to charge forward when the place erupted to Breakout. I wondered whether they question why so many people had come to see them who only appear to know or like their big hit, or whether by then they were just so relieved to get a response beyond polite applause.

And that was the end of my 2019 Cheltenham adventure. I'd have preferred to catch Yazz Ahmed, who I've seen before, and Joshua Redman, who I haven't, but was left wondering why the soul community hadn't landed on the town. Incognito did Friday night and are very popular, for reasons I don't quite understand; the soul scene still seems to hold out some hope for Gregory Porter, who did Saturday night; Sanborn was a big deal in the jazz-funk scene, which most soul fans still think was the golden age of jazz; and Swing Out Sister; with lots more to explore in-between. Cheltenham wouldn't have known what had hit them. 
Steve T  

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