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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

15867 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 874 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (Sept. 25).

From This Moment On ...

September

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.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Paul Wight (drums).

Friday, June 21, 2019

Heller-Glendinning: Billie Meets Kurt @ the Globe - June 20


Gabi Heller (vocals, percussion); Steve Glendinning (guitar)

This could well be my gig of the month, or maybe of the year, time will tell. It was partly exquisite singing, brilliant guitar, partly an interesting lecture with no boring bits, and partly a piece of theatre. Three gigs for the price of one.

The theatre came first with a slow melancholy Good Morning Heartache, sung and acted feelingly, then Gabi went on to explain something of Billie Holliday's life, (born to a teenage mother and growing up in unfavourable circumstances, unhappy in love, early death caused by addictions), but what music she gave us! I'm A Stranger Here Myself introduced us to Kurt Weill, refugee fleeing Germany who ended up in New York. And Gabi pondered aloud about whether they ever met, which they could have done, in the only mixed-race jazz club in NY - Cafe Society.


Lots of stuff to think about, besides songs such as Crazy He Calls Me; Here I Stay; Loverman (the social media song, Gabi commented); Tell me More and More and Then Some. This last song featured Gabi the percussionist, using a different item to keep rhythm in each line of the song, a bell, shakers, tappers, and goodness knows what else! The first half was rounded off with a medley called Hope, short songs about refugees on boats and fantasy peaceful ship journeys. And all the while, marvellous guitar accompaniment and solos from Steve, who just seems to get better and better! Little did we know what he was going to come up with in the second set!

We resumed with Travellin' Light and the first scatting of the night, including a skilled low scat during the guitar solo, clever stuff. Then came Weill's tune written to lyrics from socialist playwright Bertolt Brecht's Show me the Way to the Next Whisky Bar and the self-effacing lyrics of Don't Explain. A long guitar introduction for the next song, and what an intro! An echo feel on guitar and a tune straight from the plains of India, no less, beautiful bent notes, strange scales, odd rhythms! Steve must give us more of this, and soon. Then the ambivalent words of September Song, then Strange Fruit, arguably Billie's best song, with percussion from some small tubular chimes which Gabi struck with a mallet, very effective. And we ended with Gabi's favourite love song, Speak Low.
I could have listened to it all again from the beginning, and that's a good sign.
Ann Alex

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