Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, 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

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Sat 14: Jeff Barnhart’s Silent Film Fest @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 14: Customs House Big Band w. Ruth Lambert @ St Paul’s Centre, St Paul’s Gardens, Spennymoor DL16 7LR. 7:00pm (6:45pm doors). Tickets £10.00. from the venue or tel: 01388 813404. A ‘BYOB’ event.
Sat 14: Emma Wilson @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00. Acoustic blues.
Sat 14: Rat Pack - Swingin’ at the Sands @ Billingham Forum. 7:30pm.

Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Panharmonia @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Swing Manouche @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: John Hallam with the James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert!

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). 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: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Keswick Jazz & Blues Festival: Tommy Harkenrider Quartet - May 11

Tommy Harkenrider (guitar); Richard Exall (tenor sax); Sandy Suchodolski (double bass); Morgan Childs (drums)
(Review by Russell)

A couple (friends of BSH) from the Tyne-Tees Delta recommended catching Tommy Harkenrider's second concert performance at this year's Keswick Jazz and Blues Festival. The word was the jazz 'n' blues guitarist was the 'real deal'. On Thursday the man from Orange County, California had played a trio engagement with BSH favourite Bruce Rollo and Canadian drummer Morgan Childs. This Saturday evening performance would be in quartet format to include bootin' tenor sax. 
Slim, suited and booted, originally from Las Vegas, Tommy Harkenrider works out of Orange County and this UK appearance presented an opportunity to check him out. Working with the American on this Keswick date were Richard Exall on tenor sax , engaged, no doubt, to act as foil to the main man, Royal Academy graduate bassist Sandy Suchodolski (Alan Barnes, Scott Hamilton, Gareth Lockrane, BBC Big Band) and, all the way from Toronto,  drummer Morgan Childs.

Harkenrider's amiable stage patter was along the lines: Has anyone heard of...Tiny Grimes?...Pee Wee Crayton?...T-Bone Walker? and so on. Yes, this was our American visitor sussing out his audience. Some of those present knew the names, evidently quite a few didn't. And it appeared Harkenrider wasn't one for names, namely Richard Exall and Sandy Suchodolski! So, seemingly a scratch band put together for the occasion, Exall's job was to 'put the boot in' and he did just that. Little did Harkenrider know just how good the Brit was! Exall did everything required and more, Harkenrider was surely left thinking: Who is this guy?! 

Harkenrider cites George Barnes, Teddy Bunn and Les Paul as influences and he's worked the circuit with James Harman and Big Sandy. This Keswick gig revealed the American to be a Les Paul man by way of Bob Wills and all things Americana. To his left stood Sandy Suchodolski. BSH's regular north east of England stomping ground has its share of A-list bass players and, if you want an out-of-towner, the balding, bearded Suchodolski is your man. Think Andys Champion and Cleyndert or NHOP, Mr S is up there. 

Drummer Morgan Childs is active on the Toronto jazz scene with recordings out under his own name and here he was in Keswick playing a blues and boogie set. More Tiny Grimes (Frankie and Johnny Boogie), more Pee Wee then Harkenrider enquired: Has anyone heard of Freddie King? Yeah! replied some. The lights were getting low, it was almost time to go when our American guest chose to play something by his all-time hero - Texas Johnny Brown. Turning to his pick-up band Harkenrider said: A barn-burner, double shuffle. A collective nod of the head, they doggone burned it down!    
Russell

No comments :

Blog Archive