Total Pageviews

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

15867 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 874 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (Sept. 25).

From This Moment On ...

September

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.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Paul Wight (drums).

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     

No comments :

Blog Archive