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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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

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.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Claire Martin w. Strictly Smokin' Big Band @ Hoochie Coochie - Oct. 20

(Review by Lance).

I've stopped using plaudits like 'Gig of the Month', 'Gig of the Year' etc. There are just too many to realistically even shortlist them. However, if I had still been going down that road then last night would certainly have been a front runner. 

Yesterday afternoon/early evening, at a full to overflowing Hoochie Coochie, Claire Martin did the business with a performance that ticked all the boxes and maybe created a few more into the bargain. I'd came in on a high having listened to her recent album with guitarist Jim Mullen (Bumpin') and here she was with 17 of the most swinging blowers in town keeping the adrenaline flowing.


Opening up with Fever I thought, not again, but by the time it morphed into Kansas City I, like everyone else, had also 'got the fever'.

The standards rolled out. The voice, full and round, the pitch perfect, the phrasing impeccable. This was one of those, if I'm going to die let it be now moments. Fortunately it wasn't and we wallowed in the magic of Kern, Porter, Gershwin, Harold Arlen and co. I'm Old Fashioned; Our Love is Here to Stay; When the Sun Comes Out; I've Got the World on a String and Too Darn Hot - too darn right it was - musically if not weatherwise!

Interval and it was time to top up the London Pride before our OBE was back on stage. Order of the British Empire? It should be Order of the World!

I Love Being Here With You, with a reference to Hoochie Coochie cleverly inserted, I Ain't Got Nothing But the Blues; That Old Black Magic; Save Your Love For me; Pat Metheny's Timeline arranged by Michael Lamb with an added lyric by Claire followed by a blistering Hard Hearted Hannah and the grand finale an uptempo St. Louis Blues.

This had been quite a session but let's not forget that it wouldn't have been quite the same without the rip roaring presence of the SSBB. Claire paid tribute, not only to our own super singer Alice Grace but also bandleader Michael Lamb reminding us that he led his first big band at school when he was 15! He also played a lyrical flugel solo on the Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley classic Save Your Love For me.

Prior to Claire Martin's appearance the band played an impressive set that included vocals by Alice - Can't Buy Me Love; Avalon and Comes Love - serving as a reminder to Claire that she had better be in good voice which, of course, she was.

Lester Young's Tickletoe had the saxes playing the tricky head standing up and without faltering.

All the usual suspects soloed over the course of the evening and, once again, we acknowledged how lucky we were to have such a band on tap as well as a guy like Warren for presenting them so regularly at Hoochie Coochie.
Lance

Claire Martin OBE (vocals) w. Michael Lamb MD, Pete Tanton, Gordon Marshall, Dick Stacey (trumpets); Mark Ferris, Kieran Parnaby, Chris Gurgi-Smith, John Flood (trombones); Jamie Toms, Dave Kerridge, Steve Summers, Keith Robinson, Laurie Rangecroft (reeds); Pawel Jędrzejewski (guitar); Graham Don (piano); Michael Whent (bass); Guy Swinton (drums); Alice Grace (vocals). 

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