Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Steve Fishwick: “I can’t get behind the attitude that new is always somehow better than old” - Jazz Journal, April 15, 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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

November

Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). Tickets: £25.00. inc. buffet. A Gatsby themed evening.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops and Cheese, 9-11 Tower St., Hartlepool, TS24 7HH. 7:30pm.
Thu 30: Jools Holland's R & B Orchestra @ Newcastle City Hall. 7:30pm.
Thu 30: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. Guest band night: Mark Toomey Quintet (Mark Toomey, sax; Paul Donnelly, guitar; Jeremy McMurray, keys; Peter Ayton, bass; Mark Robertson, drums). 9:00pm.

December
Fri 01: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 01: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 01: Paul Skerritt @ All Saints’ Church, Eastgate, Co. Durham. 7:00pm. Xmas Tree Fest.
Fri 01: Alligator Gumbo @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 01: Nu Sound Brass @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 01: Struggle Buggy w. Jim Murray @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 02: Paula Jackman's Jazz Masters @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 02: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 02: Abbie Finn Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm.
Sat 02: Tenement Jazz Band @ John Marley Centre, Newcastle. Swing Tyne Winter Social. £8.00. + bf. Advance purchase only, no admission at the door. BYOB. Lindy hop workshop from 11:00am. £39.00.
Sat 02: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Masham, Hartburn Village, Stockton. 7:00pm. Feat. Noel Dennis.
Sat 02: Classic Swing @ The Nuthatch, 9 - 11 Bedford St, Middlesbrough TS1 2LL. 7:00-9:00pm. Classic Swing in trio format.
Sat 02: Paul Skerritt w. Danny Miller Big Band @ Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm.
Sat 02: Vermont Big Band @ Whitley Bay FC. 7:30pm. £10.00. (inc. hot buffet). Tickets available from WBFC’s Seahorse pub club house.
Sat 02: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Ponteland Social Club, Northumberland. 7:30pm. £18.00 (inc. stotties & soup supper). A fundraiser for Hexham Constituency Labour Party.
Sat 02: Durham Dynamics & Basement Jazz @ Kingsgate Bar & Café, Durham Students’ Union. 7:30pm. £5.00. (£4.50. concs.). ‘Fab & Festive’. A cappella & jazz. Abba, Mariah Carey & more.
Sat 02: Tom Remon & Laurence Harrison @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. Xmas party night inc. buffet & special raffle. £3.00.
Sat 02: Groovetrain @ The Unionist Club, Laygate, South Shields. 9:00pm.

Sun 03: The Central Bar Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. The Central Bar Quartet plays Lou Donaldson’s Gravy Train. Featuring Jamie Toms.
Sun 03: Paul Skerritt @ Smith’s Arms, Carlton, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:00pm.
Sun 03: Johnny Hunter Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 03: Jam session @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.

Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 04: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ People’s Kitchen, Bath Lane, Newcastle. From 5:30pm. On-street gig supporting the work of the People’s Kitchen charity. Wrap up warm! Donate!
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio w Lindsay Hannon @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Mon 04: Durham University Jazz Orchestra + Durham University Big Band @ Durham Castle DH1 3RW. 8:30pm. £6.00.; £5.00. concs; £4.00. DSM. ‘Jazzy Christmas’.

Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ All Saints Church, Cleadon. 7:00pm. Concert in the church hall. BYOB.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Sid White. The best free show in town!

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Free. Note later start time, concert performance (open to the public).
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Friday, August 09, 2019

The Old Peculier jam session @ The Black Swan - August 6

(Review by Russell)

August, holidays, likely as not particpiants and and listeners would be thin on the ground. O ye, of little faith! Of course they turned out, sitters-in and the regular 'first name terms' crowd. The Black Swan jam session rarely, if ever, fails to deliver. As the evening's entertainment was about to begin a bottle of Old Peculier couldn't be resisted. Cheers!   

First up, BSH's Ann Alex. Bubbling with enthusiasm, AA engaged with the house trio to sing two numbers opening with the Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer classic Come Rain or Come Shine. And that was it, no more vocals, from here on in it would be a top flight instrumental showcase. 

The trio - master guitarist Mark Willams, jam session lynchpin bassist Paul Grainger and ace drummer Russ Morgan - could hold the attention of an audience anywhere, anytime but this evening was all about the sitters-in dotted around the room waiting patiently to be called by Mr PG. Harry Keeble got the nod, played a couple of tunes including a magical reading of 'Round Midnight. One sensed HK had been in the woodshed for this one, trying out a few things - whatever, it worked! Our tenor saxophonist is soon to head to London, if he pops up at another session before he departs, treasure his contribution because Harry is one helluva tenor player.  

Guitarist Adam Sams puts in an occasional Black Swan appearance and his welcome presence enabled fellow six stringer Williams to go to the bar. Someday My Prince Will Come waltzed along nicely. Good on Sams for following on from Mr MW. At this juncture, in typical jam session style, it was a case of 'all hands on deck' with an array of talent reporting for duty. Sams stayed exactly where he was, Russ Morgan went to the bar as the fabulous Abbie Finn took a spell, John Rowland meant business (taking off his jacket to blow some robust tenor!) with Teesside's finest, Mr Jeremy McMurray, occupying the piano stool. Monk's Bright Mississippi the tune, a definite highlight. Due to an absence of depping bass players MC Grainger, citing the EU Working Time Directive, declared the session would 'take five'...everybody out!

And they kept on coming...David Gray is affectionately known as 'Showtime' thanks to our trombonist never failing to provide 'good value' but that shouldn't obscure the fact he is a superb musician and to illustrate the point he played a sublime version of Corcovado. As if things couldn't get any better 'the boys' joined the party. Three supremely talented young men, currently 'on vacation' from their respective universities - Ben Lawrence (Durham), Francis Tulip (Birmingham), Matt MacKellar (Berklee) - took centre stage for a couple of numbers (including a TS Monk jam session staple) alongside the horns of Keeble and Rowland. The standard beggared belief. Millennials with bags of talent, pianist Ben has developed exponentially, guitarist Francis has the chops, the language, literally at his fingertips, and Matt is as fine a drummer you could wish to hear. How lucky is the Tyneside jazz scene to be able to boast three A-list drummers hanging at one session? We are going through a golden period, no question about it. 

Four (Rowland blowing tenor), the Millennials dazzling, FT taking a look at Bye Bye Blackbird, a lock-in wouldn't have gone amiss but, as the eleven o'clock curfew approached, it was all aboard the milk train (Ray Burns jumping on with no time to spare!). Yes, it had been a canny night, alright. The next session is on Tuesday 20th. Who knows who'll turn up. One way to find out...be there!
Russell
                           
Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums) + Ann Alex (vocals); Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Adam Sams (guitar); John Rowland (tenor sax); Jeremy McMurray (piano); Abbie Finn (drums); David Gray (trombone); Francis Tulip (guitar); Ben Lawrence (piano); Matt MacKellar (drums); Ray Burns (harmonica)   

No comments :

Blog Archive