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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.

Saturday, September 07, 2019

Hokum Hotshots 50 Not Out! @ Prohibition Bar - September 6

Hokum Hotshots: Peter Mason (guitar, tiple, vocals); Jim Murray (guitar, mandolin, vocals) + Rob Mason (harmonica, vocals) 
(Review by Russell)

Fifty not out! Peter Mason and Jim Murray were celebrating half a century working together as the Hokum Hotshots. The word was Prohibition Bar would be busy...it was! As the doors opened a mad rush ensued to bag a ringside seat. 

Hokum is blues with a smile on its face - that's the Hokum Hotshots' take on the tradition; jugs, blues and old timey as played by the pioneering, largely Mississippi Delta-based, musicians of some one hundred years ago. Hawaiian shirts de rigueur, Messrs Mason and Murray don't take themselves too seriously...maybe one day but don't count on it!   

Surrounded by some serious hardware - Gibsons, Martins, washboard (necktie version) and a tiple (yes, a tiple, look it up!) the hokum held the full house spellbound. Imagine you're jumpin' a freight train, along the way you'll encounter the likes of Woody Guthrie, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Frank Stokes, Casey Bill Weldon, Frank Ferrera (nice Hawaiian shirt!), Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy and, this being the Newcastle Central railhead, Jimmie Rodgers.  

Seminole BluesMy Time Ain't LongBig Bill's Blues (as with many tunes of the era titles were, and continue to be, somewhat inexact), the duo's excellent (You Don't Need) No Religion, our duo unearthed some gems to entertain the Friday night (blues dancing at the back) crowd. The hooch flowed, tales were told, some with expletives aimed, by and large, at Mason by Murray then Murray to Mason. Rob Mason, harmonica, joined the boys on a couple of numbers, the duo, then trio, had a ball. They've been doin' it for so long they ain't gonna stop now!   
  
Earlier, Blind Pig Blues Club co-founder Lee Bates opened the evening with a half hour set.

Lee Bates (guitar, vocals)

Amiable patter comes easily to Bates and he took a dig at the evening's top of the bill act saying he thought at least one of them - Mason or Murray - was still alive! Delta bluesmen Wille Lee Brown, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Luke Jordan and the spledidly named Hezekiah Jenkins were aboard Bates' Mississippi-bound freight train. 

Church Bells Blues (comp L Jordan) rang out, superb. The Panic is On (comp H Jenkins) from 1931 drew a parallel with today's 'state of the nation' (Bates could scarcely conceal his contempt!), Irving Berlin's My Walking Stick, Bates' acoustic guitar and vocals were interspersed with anecdotes, not least about first hearing the Houm Hotshots when his father took him along to a gig way back when. Lee Bates knew the evening wasn't about him, it was all about Peter Mason and Jim Murray.   
Russell

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