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Bebop Spoken There

James Brandon Lewis: "Sometimes I'm not thinking about anything other than blowing the paint off the walls, and other times I'm narrating a story about my life." - (DownBeat June 2023).

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

15516 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 536 of them this year alone and, so far, 25 this month (June 7).

From This Moment On ...

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Miners' Picnic @ Woodhorn, Ashington. Music inc. Northern Monkey Brass Band (3:00-3:50pm); New York Brass Band (4:00-4:55pm).
Sat 10: Jeffrey Hewer @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington. 6:00-8:00pm. Free.
Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Jeremy McMurray's Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Ropner Park, Stockton TS18 4EF. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 11: Jam No. 19 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 13: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 13: Infusion Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 13: Alice Grace & Pawel Jedrzejewski @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv.).

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 14: NUJO Final Jazz Jam @ Bar Loco, Newcastle. 6:30pm. Free. Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra's final jam session of the academic year. All welcome.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 15: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 15: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 15: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Thu 15: Alexander Ord Trio @ Tynedale Beer & Cider Festival, Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. Evening, time TBC.
Thu 15: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. Time TBC.
Thu 15: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.

Friday, June 07, 2019

Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Gala Theatre, Durham - June 7

Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax); Paul Edis (piano)

As usual the Gala Theatre's monthly lunchtime jazz concert was an advance sellout and, as usual, a printed programme indicated the day's set list. On this occasion, the proposed selection of numbers - standards and originals - was largely abandoned by the duo of Vasilis Xenopoulos and Paul Edis. Friends since their days working together in London, they decided to play a whole bunch of other tunes. 

As the concert was about to begin a member of the audience mentioned that she hadn't heard today's saxophonist adding that she was a big fan of Snake Davis. Your correspondent suggested she was in for a treat. Lerner and Loewe's On the Street Where We Live opened the programme - Snake Davis this wasn't! From this point, 'Vasi' (it saves typing out Vasilis Xenopoulos) chose to make the announcements and proceeded to turn It Ain't Necessarily So inside out. Superb, masterful tenor playing.

A brace of Rodgers and Hammerstein - the first, It Might as Well be Spring (it won the composers an Academy Award for Best Original Song, State Fair, 1945) with its worked-out coda entrancing the full house, followed by My Favorite Things. Vasi alluded to Coltrane's famous take on the popular song, however, here in Durham we got Vasi in full flow, GASbook style. Magical!

Pianist Edis, fresh from a triumphant gig at Sage Gateshead the previous evening (as was Vasi), dovetailed seamlessly with his pal from London. Sans rhythm section Edis' left hand worked overtime and his solo flights were as dazzling and inventive as always. Vasi is as fond as any horn player of inserting fleeting quotes into his solos, although compared to Alan Barnes he rationed them to two or three during the one-hour performance rather than two or three every two or three bars! 

Vasi observed that guitarist Nigel Price considers a gig incomplete without a blues. Quite right, sir! Cue Bluesology which turned out to be another killer number as our tenor man took it apart and, considerately, put it together again. Two o'clock, time to go, no way...encore! JS Bach-like counterpoint (they're clever lads Vasi and Paul) set up Autumn Leaves. World class jazz here in Durham and, what's more, Messrs Xenopoulos and Edis will be doing it all again - with a markedly different set list, it should be said - this evening at Ushaw College (7:30) in the company of fellow A-listers Andy Champion, bass, and drummer Russ Morgan. World class? You bet!        

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