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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

17444 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 718 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Oct. 10).

From This Moment On ...

October

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 14: Black is the Color of My Voice @ Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by Nina Simone, performed by Nicholle Cherrie.

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano), Paul Grainger (double bass), Bailey Rudd (drums).

Wed 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 16: Cath Stephens’ improvisation workshop @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 4:30-6:00pm. Collaborative group focusing on vocal improvisations.
Wed 16: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 16: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 17: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Olivia Cuttill Quintet @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 17: Moonlight Serenade Orchestra UK: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Phoenix Theatre, Blyth. 7:30pm.
Thu 17: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 17: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. Guests Jeremy McMurray (keys); Richie Emmerson (tenor sax); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Adrian Beadnell (bass). 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s, Crook. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Chet Set @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Pete Tanton & co.
Fri 18: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm (upstairs). A Hoodoo Blues dance & social event. £10.00. class & social (£10.00., £7.50., £5.00. social only). Michael Woods (country blues guitar) on stage 9:00pm.
Fri 18: East Coast Swing Band @ Hexham Abbey. 7:30pm. £9.00.
Fri 18: Ben Crosland Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 18: Durham University Jazz Society’s ‘High Standards’ @ Music Dept. Music Room, Divinity House, Palace Green, Durham University DH1 3RS. 8:009-30pm. Tel: 0191 334 1419. £7.00., £5.00.
Fri 18: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 19: Sat 19: Paula Jackman’s Jazz Masters @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 19: Howlin’ Mat @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Country blues guitar & vocals. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 20: Kamasi Washington @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. POSTPONED! New date Saturday 5 April 2025.
Sun 20: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: Magpies of Swing @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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

Friday, June 14, 2019

Durham University Big Band's Big Summer Gig @ Durham Students' Union - June 13


(Review by Russell)

Advertised as an eight o'clock start it seemed reasonable to arrive sometime around half past seven to go to the bar, take a seat and listen to a last minute soundcheck. Walking into Ove Arup's 1960s Durham city landmark building the Riverside Bar was just about full to capacity, the place rammed with students...no surprise given that tonight's venue for the end of year gig by the Durham University Big Band was Durham Students' Union. What was a surprise was the gig started at 7:30...bloody students! 

Hawaiian shirts and on stage drinks aplenty gave the game away - the Durham University Big Band guys were demob happy. Led by Zach Fox, who a week earlier received a standing ovation at his Final Recital, DUBB presented two sets of typically mixed fayre; classic swing numbers sitting alongside contemporary charts from the likes of Jacob Mann and Gerard Presencer. 


The sound balance wasn't very good to say the least. Alex Flanders, trumpet and flugelhorn, blew some good stuff yet, despite being on a mic, was difficult to hear. Similarly the excellent Tommy Wise (heard at last weekend's DJazz Festival) on trombone, Matt Bartlett, alto sax, and the main man himself, Fox, on tenor, starring on Mann's Baby Carrots. Band vocalists Evie Hill and Rob Singleton were on hand to sing a few numbers and it was Hill who closed the first set with student favourite Diddy Bop

On a night like this the bar did good business particularly with a 'big band cocktail' (comprising a long list of killer ingredients) on offer at £4.50. Would DUBB attend to the sound issues or would more important matters such as downing another cocktail take priority?

Tommy Wise opened the second set with more first-rate 'bone work on September in the Rain...the poor sound quality had yet to be remedied. Trumpeter Honor Hornsby's hurried announcements added to the less than ideal presentation...Footprints...Gerard Presencer said the diminutive Hornsby. It was, of course, Wayne Shorter's Footprints with, perhaps, an arrangement by Presencer. 

Evie Hill returned to sing Alfa Mist's Breathe featuring Fox's tenor solo with impressive work from drummer Will Elias in a rhythm section which included the equally impressive guitarist Tom Burgess. BSH first came across Elias accompanying pianist Juliane Deil at DJazz 2018, let's hear him sitting-in at one of Newcastle's spectacular jam sessions! Hill's vocal partner Rob Singleton joined her on Zach Fox's arrangement of Robert Glasper's Ah, Yeah which highlighted the arranger's command of his instrument, this evening on tenor sax although the likeable bandleader is equally adept on alto. 

Durham University Jazz Society is at the heart of student jazz activity across the city including organising jam sessions, spawning splinter groups (Jazz Soctet played DJazz 2019) and participating in prestigious masterclass events with Mark Armstrong, Jasper Høiby, Nikki Iles, Callum Au and others. The latter, trombonist Callum Au, supplied the arrangement for DUBB's splendid take on Bernstein's Something's Coming from West Side Story. Excellent ensemble work, Wise and Fox the soloists, the evening kept on getting better and better.  

Well, all good things come to an end. Rob Singleton joined the band for one last number - D'Angelo's Spanish Joint - with, belatedly, the PA finally enabling our vocalist to be heard loud and clear. Poor sound balance aside this DUBB gig was as a good a way as any to say goodbye to the 2018-19 academic year. There is a final opportunity to hear the band before the guys head off on their holidays, that's next Thursday (June 20) in a Jazz North East promotion at the Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre.  
Russell.

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