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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party @ Village Hotel - Nov.3

Sunday evening - Nov.3
(Review by Russell)

Close on three hundred people had foregone sleep to ensure they caught every last minute of an exhausting but hugely enjoyable festival. Beginning late night Thursday with the annual 'welcome concert', the Classic Jazz Party was about to hear the bell for a thrilling Sunday evening last lap.

Andy Schumm is the nearest living, breathing approximation of Bix Beiderbecke and sought to emulate his hero as he entertained the Classic Jazz Party's audience with a half hour piano Professor set. Yes, Schumm, just like Bix, could play the piano! Bix's men - Arthur Schutt and Frank Signorelli - featured in the set alongside two or three of Schumm's own compositions, one of which, he conceded, wasn't exactly jazz!  

The following set presented by Morten Gunnar Larsen was an ambitious undertaking - Music of the German Weimar Republic. Norwegian Gunnar Larsen is an authority on the period - the years following WWI up to the rise to power of a nondescript Chancellor and subsequent Führer of Germany. Sixty minutes of decadence, Kurt Weill's cabaret of defiance and immaculate playing from all concerned held the audience rapt. 

Pianist Gunnar Larsen teamed up with Claus Jacobi to work on an engrossing programme. Largely downbeat rather than hot, cellist Penny Callow provided pathos sitting alongside fellow north of England star, Emma Fisk, violin. At times trumpeters Mike Davis and Torstein Kubban blew in subdued manner, Richard Pite read Jacobi's transcriptions for tuba and string bass and the usually ebullient Josh Duffee sat respectfully behind the traps reading the dots as Joan Viskant's vocals evoked the period. 

Claus Jacobi directed a brief set looking at Django Reinhardt, Ellington, Benny Carter and others. Guitarists Félix Hunot and Henry Lemaire relished the material as did Spats Langham also playing guitar in an Anglo Saxes vs French Guitars - the saxophones on this occasion being Lars FrankMichael McQuaid, leader Jacobi, David Horniblow and Matthias Seuffert.

The CJP was entering the home straight. 9:30 at night, time to bring on Spats and his Hot Combination. Tom Langham's record collection is probably like no other. The Al Bowlly fan likes Ukulele Ike, he can sing Bing and this set looked at a variety of small combos. Helping Langham were Emma Fisk (the pair often work together on sets), Duke Heitger, the hugely impressive Lars FrankMorten Gunnar Larsen and CJP favourite Malcolm Sked, tuba and string bass.

The big guns were wheeled out for the festival finale. Michael McQuaid led a stupendous farewell surrounded by MazuriéHeitger and Tomasso, trumpets, Alistair Allan and Graham Hughes, trombones, Seuffert and Horniblow the reeds alongside McQuaid, the man from New Orleans David Boeddinghaus, piano, Hunot, banjo and guitar, fellow Frenchman Lemaire on string bass and drummer Richard Pite. Ellington and Cab Calloway featured in McQuaid's Mills Blue Rhythm Band. It swung, it really did. Time to go...to the bar for a Classic Jazz Party jam session finale like no other! 

Sunday Night Pub Jam - would anyone dip out? Nope! Musicians by the score, punters by three score and ten (and more!) made for the bar, bagged a seat, stood at the bar, ready for the jam session to end all jam sessions. American Andy Schumm, cornet, called on his USA buddies Dave Bock, trombone and piano ace Andrew Oliver to get things going at eleven and from there on in the best part of twenty musicians had a blow (the finale numbering at least seventeen!). Lars Frank was there from the off, Phil Rutherford played the first hour on tuba, Nick Ward opened behind the traps and Joan Viskant wowed the packed room. 

The beer flowed, dancers did their thing and one after another the crème de la crème stepped up for a blow. In no particular order, and it's by no means a comprehensive list, the following had a ball - Stéphane Gillot, Torstein Kubban, Michael McQuaid, Matthias Seuffert, Young Talent Award winner Colin Hancock (pictured), Malo Mazuiré, Josh Duffee, Nick Ward, Nick Ball, Martin Wheatley, Graham Hughes, trombone and vocals, David Boeddinghaus, Enrico Tomasso and the fabulous Analucia Tomasso (pictured), vocals. it was 3:00am when it all finally came to an end. Let's do it again next year. The bookings are already coming in! 
Russell     

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