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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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thursday, June 20, 2019

CD/LP Review: Tubby Hayes Quartet - Grits, Beans and Greens: The Lost Fontana Sessions

Tubby Hayes (tenor sax); Mike Pyne (piano); Ron Mathewson (bass); Spike Wells (drums).
(Review by Lance)

Even if someone were to discover the mythical Buddy Bolden cylinder tomorrow or find a photo of Robert Johnson shaking hands with the devil they would count for nothing beside these 50-year-old recordings by Tubby Hayes - the story of their discovery is related here

Hayes was, arguably, the UK's greatest jazz musician and certainly, during his lifetime, this country's finest tenor player. In his heyday he wasn't given his due -  at the time, if it wasn't American it was inferior - and, bearing in mind his contemporaries across the pond included Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt and John Coltrane, to name but a few, the competition was tough. We were brainwashed by the jazz press, few of whom waved the union jack. Drummers came off the worst and the best any British player could hope for was "pretty good for a Brit." 
In retrospect, listening to these recordings it could be said that Sonny Stitt was pretty good for a Yank!

The other three were of a stature that befitted the leader with Pyne, Mathewson and Wells giving the great man the perfect launching pad - British drummers don't swing? Bollocks!

Paradoxically, it was probably The Beatles, who hadn't an ounce of jazz in them, that opened up America's eyes and ears to the fact there was, and still is, music to beat them at their own game. Certainly Tubby did just that and, at this late stage of his sadly short life when he was Tubby no more, he was still doing it. I can't visualise there being a better record this year - I say 'record' as CD doesn't equate with my memories of such a great man even though my copy is a CD - in my mind though it's an LP. In actual fact it is available as a CD, an LP, a download or a double CD deluxe version complete with alt. takes, a hardback book and the kitchen sink from the studio canteen.
I'll stick with the CD.
I usually wax eloquent about albums I review - the ones I don't praise get shuffled to the bottom of the pile and become history. However, I rarely go so far as to describe an album as 'a must!'
This is 'a must'!
Lance.
For Members Only; Grits, Beans and Greens; Rumpus; You Know I Care; Where Am I Going?

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