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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, November 25, 2019

EFG London Jazz Festival - Rhiannon Giddens/ Francesco Turrisi @ Royal Festival Hall – Nov. 22


(Review by Peter Slavid)

I should declare up front that I've been a fan of Rhiannon Giddens for some years.  I first saw her as part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops – the radical trio that recast the history of American Country music to finally recognise the part played by African Americans.  I've seen her play with her own band with a mix of pop, folk and country, I saw her became the first American to receive the BBC's folk singer of the year award. Then I saw her blow away a room full of Scotland's finest musicians when she totally stole the show at the Transatlantic Sessions.

So is this another example of a jazz festival booking someone from a different genre just to fill seats?  Well, yes – if you believe that the history of African-American music and jazz are completely unrelated.  But of course they aren't.


Giddens is a banjo player, singer, fiddler, actress, musicologist and a genuine star with a stage presence to die for.  Growing up of mixed race in the American south, she called contra dances at school, she went on to train as an Opera singer, and has devoted a lot of her career to exploring (and sometimes exposing) the shifting influences of African Americans on the American culture.
Francesco Turrisi is an early music specialist, a jazz pianist and accordion player and a world class player of the Sicilian tamburello as well as being entertaining in his own right – especially when talking about the tambourine.

The duo were accompanied throughout by some fine bass from Jason Sypher and on a couple of numbers by some rasping trumpet from Alphonso Horne.  The show opened with a short set from the soul/jazz singer Bumi Thomas, the Scottish/Nigerian who recently survived an attempt to deport her and who is a quality soul/jazz singer in her own right. 

I don't think it's churlish to say that everyone else on the stage, even Turrisi, was in the shadow of the dominant personality and star quality of Giddens.

In an outstandingly entertaining show we were treated to a history lesson, following the African origins of the banjo, starting with the replica of an 1858 banjo that is Giddens first love. We follow it through its role in the black-face minstrel movement; and we hear some of the African origins of the Sicilian Tamburello and it's similarity to the minstrel Tambo.  And all this is done with so much music and fun that you hardly realise what you are learning.

Musically we heard songs from the duo's fine recent album “There Is No Other“ and more. We heard  American folk music, a Hermeto Pascoal tune, an Italian folk song in a Puglia dialect, an Irish folk song that finished with an episode of scat singing, blues, jazz, cabaret, and even a touch of opera.  Then as an encore, two songs from Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Giddens infectiously enthusiastic as she bounced around the stage to close to a standing ovation, and a rush to the CD stall.

The duo are appearing at Sage Gateshead on Friday November 29.
Peter Slavid.

Peter Slavid broadcasts a programme of European Jazz on several internet stations including mixcloud.com/ukjazz

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