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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

Fri 20: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-3:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 20: Baghdaddies @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Smokin’ Spitfires @ Platform 1, East Bedlington Community Centre. 7:00pm.
Fri 20: Pete Tanton’s Christmas @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Alligator Gumbo @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Abbie Finn’s Finntet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 20: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sat 21: Lindsay Hannon Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £15.00. ‘Swinging with Christmas Songs’.
Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 21: Jackson’s Wharf Xmas Party @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 7:00pm. Free. Featuring the New ’58 Jazz Collective.
Sat 21: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sun 22: Hot Club du Nord @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £15.00. + bf. Xmas party. SOLD OUT!
Sun 22: Red Kites Jazz @ Gibside Chapel, nr. Rowlands Gill. 1:00pm. Admission charge applies.
Sun 22: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 22: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Revolutionaires @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb rhythm & blues outfit.
Sun 22: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger & Mark Robertson @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Line-up TBC.
Sun 22: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music (musicians TBC).
Sun 22: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Zerox, Sandhill, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors).

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: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. TBC.
Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

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

Wednesday, May 08, 2019

Darlington Jazz Festival: Durham Alumni Big Band @ The Market Square Marquee - May 5


(Review by Russell)

Sunday's closing concert at this year's Darlington Jazz Festival presented the Durham Alumni Big Band playing a somewhat unusual programme compiled and conducted by DABB 'old boy' Matt Roberts. Earlier in the year, the London based trumpeter pitched the idea to the festival committee that the ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra perform a selection of 1980s film and television theme tunes. If nothing else the market square marquee's capacity audience would be able to sing along to some or all of them! 

Roberts wanted to play a guessing game, something like Name That Tune! Your starter for ten, the first number has a sporting connection. Readers will be pleased to learn that BSH was straight in there, after two bars...Grandstand! Lots of smiling faces, tapping feet and, crucially, both the arrangement and the performance of the Alumni nothing short of sensational. Roberts' enthusiasm bubbles over at the best of times, here, he was in his element. Our MD proceeded to introduce most, if not all numbers, with 'Here's another banger!'. Much laughter in the audience and on the stand with Jonny Dunn in particular in fits at his pal's hilarious introductions. 

Here's another banger! said Roberts and once again your scribe was straight in with Ski Sunday. Bond, the name is James Bond - everyone knows the theme, this one from License to Kill featuring tenor man Alex Baker's take on Gladys Knight. Here's another banger (you get the idea)...Ghostbusters with massive vocal participation by audience and band alike and a ghostly, dancing figure in the shape of one M Roberts!  Yes, this was end-of-term stuff, fun all the way with the Alumni on top form. From this point on the guessing game would become marginally more difficult.

The Alumni's trumpet section has always been up there with the best of them and when Roberts introduced, yes, 'another banger!', a Team BSH mini-conference concluded that the Alumni can, at any one time, put out four from a pool of (at least) six A-list trumpeters. On this occasion, the section comprised Ian Robinson, Shaune Eland, Jonny Dunn and Bill Watson. Roberts mentioned Maynard Ferguson and the section looked the other way! Drawing the short straw was the man usually out front - Mr Shaune Eland. The Alumni's regular MD stepped up to nail Ferguson's top C work on an arrangement of Sesame Street.

Points scoring became more difficult, except, perhaps, for those who sat in front of the box watching children's television programmes in the 80s, with a run of CBeebies tv theme tunes. The first set had been a refreshing change and, what's more, the marquee's heating had been turned up to something like comfortable.

The second set began craftily in that Roberts slipped-in a bona fide jazz chart. Gordon Goodwin's Hunting Wabbits gave the band the chance to have a real good blow with features for Steve McGarvie (alto) and the always impressive Jonny Dunn. Roberts was in party mood alright but he took time out to talk about the work of Durham Music Service saying that for a young musician the music education available in County Durham can be 'a life-changing experience'. 

Thundercats reinstated the theme tune thread and a short (fifty seconds or so) blast of Have I Got News for You brought yet more smiles across the marquee. The DABB is a jazz orchestra so it came as little surprise that another 'jazz' number - John Dankworth's theme for Tomorrow's World - found its way into the set with Roberts joining the trumpet section to blow and blow some more. The A- TeamPopeye and Quincy Jones' Soul Bossa Nova from Austin Powers brought the curtain down on a fantastic finale to this year's Darlington Jazz Festival.        
Russell

Durham Alumni Big Band: Matt Roberts (MD, trumpet); Ian Robinson, Shaune Eland, Jonny Dunn, Bill Watson (trumpets); Andrew Kirtley, Terry O'Hern,  Alastair White (trombones); David Hamilton (bass trombone); Alex Baker (tenor sax); James ? (tenor sax), Steve McGarvie (alto sax), Kirsty Dunn (alto sax), Danielle Drew (baritone sax); Ben Connor (piano); Shaun Henderson (guitar); Mick Shoulder (bass guitar); Stephen Fletcher (drums) .

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