Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Charles McPherson: “Jazz is best heard in intimate places”. (DownBeat, July, 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

16611 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 1504 of them this year alone and, so far, 50 this month (July 23).

From This Moment On ...

July

Sat 27: BBC Proms: BBC Introducing stage @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 12 noon. Free. Line-up inc. Nu Groove (2:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (2:50pm); Dilutey Juice (3:50pm); SwanNek (5:00pm); Rivkala (6:00pm).
Sat 27: Nomade Swing Trio @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sat 27: Mississippi Dreamboats @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 27: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Cafédral, Owengate, Durham. 9:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.
Sat 27: Theon Cross + Knats @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 10:00pm. £22.00. BBC Proms: BBC Introducing Stage (Sage Two). A late night gig.

Sun 28: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm.
Sun 28: Miss Jean & the Ragtime Rewind Swing Band @ Fonteyn Ballroom, Dunelm House (Durham Students’ Union), Durham. 2:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.
Sun 28: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Nomade Swing Trio @ Red Lion, Alnmouth. 4:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 28: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 28: Milne Glendinning Band @ Cafédral, Owengate, Durham. 9:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.

Mon 29: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 30: ???

Wed 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 31: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 31: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

August

Thu 01: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:30pm. £4.00.
Thu 01: Funky Drummer @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 01: Elsadie & the Bobcats @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 02: Mainly Two @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT! Fri 02: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 02: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 02: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. POSTPONED!

Saturday, May 04, 2019

Darlington Jazz Festival: Matt Roberts Sextet @ The Voodoo Cafe - May 3


Matt Roberts Sextet: Matt Roberts (trumpet); Josh Arcoleo (tenor sax); Alice Leggett (alto sax); Sam Watts (piano); Inga Eichler (double bass); Sam Gardner (drums)
(Review by Russell)

Our annual treat didn't disappoint, how could it with six of the best up from London? The opening night of the 2019 Darlington Jazz Festival once again found Matt Roberts in terrific form working alongside some seriously talented friends playing the music of the Darlington trumpeter's chosen subject: Blue Mitchell. 

Year after year, Roberts returns home to play the opening set of his home town's jazz festival with a trumpet hero the focus of attention - Miles, Freddie Hubbard, Nat Adderley, Fats Navarro, the list goes on. This year, from the Blue Note hard bop years through to seventies' funk, it was Blue Mitchell all the way.

Two new faces in the sextet line-up - alto saxophonist Alice Leggett (a favourite at Alex Garnett's Ronnie Scott's late night jam session...Alice, have you brought your horn? enquires Garnett when he sees the young alto player has walked in. Yeah replies Alice, Garnett delighted, he wants the best sitting-in). And on double bass this evening at the Voodoo Cafe not the marvellous Daisy George but the equally marvellous Inga Eichler. Our German bassist arrived in London ten years ago to study at the Royal Academy, stayed on and is as busy as anyone on the scene. 


The Thing to Do from '65 (featuring a young Chick Corea) opened Roberts' set. In previous years our trumpeter has been happy to train the spotlight on his brilliant bandmates and this year was no different except that this time around he really did step up to the plate, leading from the front. A first blistering solo, the room cheered as one. Many were there to hear Josh Arcoleo and they weren't to be disappointed as our tenor man followed Roberts blowing hard bop and beyond and yep, the place went bonkers!

Oh Mama Enit with its calypso rhythm Alice Leggett was tempted to show what she could do. Roberts assured us our altoist regularly blows away the opposition on the London scene and boy, here in Darlington she lived up to her star billing by playing killing alto. Roberts' presentational style is that of an enthusiast, effusive about his fellow musicians and about his subject - Blue Mitchell. Brother Ball from Mitchell’s first album way back in '58 closed a fine first set. Having arrived with not much time to spare before the scheduled nine o'clock start the sextet retired to the adjoining restaurant for a quick chilli.

At the start of the second set Roberts thanked the full house for sticking around...as if we were going anywhere! Good Humour Man resumed matters with our local hero saying: The nightlife in Darlington is poppin'. Well, not quite the Soho scene but there is something to say for the place! We were moving into modal territory with Perception said RobertsOur band leader went for it with a lung-busting solo (more cheering!) which was met with an 'out there' tenor blast that elicited more whooping and hollering and, to quote Roberts, 'an outer space ' bass solo by the fabulous Inga Eichler. 

The two Sams - pianist Sam Watts and drummer extraordinaire Sam Gardner - had a ball with the frontline fully appreciative of their engine room efforts. As eleven o'clock came and went the Matt Roberts Sextet kept on cookin'...PT Blues (bluesy alto to die for from Leggett), Day at the Mint from late period Mitchell then the final number of the evening - Fungi Mama - with all soloing as if there was no tomorrow. Yes, another memorable night at the Voodoo Cafe. Ink in Matt Roberts' 2020 Darlington Jazz Festival gig in the diary now - Friday, May 1st.         
Russell

No comments :

Blog Archive