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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 ...

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.

Fri 16: Sue Ferris Quintet @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 16: Stu Collingwood @ Baltic, Gateshead. 7:00pm. £15.75. A Let's Caper event featuring exhibitions, food, music etc.
Fri 16: Steve Beresford-Hannah Marshall-John Butcher @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:30pm. JNE promotion.
Fri 16: James Taylor Quartet @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Fri 16: Customs House Big Band @ Customs House, South Shields. 7:30pm.
Fri 16: Sue Ferris Quintet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm.
Fri 16: New Orleans Brass Band @ Billy Bootlegger's, Arch 2, Stepney Bank, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. NOBB directed by Jason Holcomb.

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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