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Bebop Spoken There

Orrin Evans: “Now, getting a teaching spot is the new record deal”. (DownBeat, November, 2024).

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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Josh Weir: I love the writing on bebop spoken here... I think the work you are doing is amazing.

Postage

17523 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 797 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Nov. 10).

From This Moment On ...

November

Sun 17: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 17: Liane Carroll: Jazz Vocal Weekend Workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 9:00am-5:00pm. £95.00. Day 2/2. SOLD OUT!
Sun 17: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Skerritt (solo) performing with backing tapes.
Sun 17: Eva Fox & the Jazz Guys @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 17: Liane Carroll @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Sun 17: Julian Lage @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Lage, solo guitar.

Mon 18: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 19: Christine Tassan et Les Imposteures @ Bowes & Gilmonby Parish Hall, Co. Durham. 7:30pm. £14.00.; £7.00. child.
Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Mark Robertson.
Tue 19: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Billingham Catholic Club. 7:30pm. £5.00. from 07757 062798 or at the door.

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Christine Tassan et Les Imposteures @ Howick Village Hall, nr. Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00.; £6.00. child.
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 20: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 21: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Autumn into Winter Titles (music & songs that go with the change of the seasons)’.
Thu 21: Down for the Count Swing Orchestra @ Newcastle Cathedral. 7:30pm. £25.00., £20.00., £14.00. ‘Swing Into Xmas with the Down for the Count Swing Orchestra’.
Thu 21: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Neil Brodie (trumpet); Donna Hewitt (sax); Josh Bentham (sax); Garry Hadfield (keys); Ron Smith (bass); Mark Hawkins (drums).

Fri 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The White Swan, Ovingham. 12:30-3:30pm. £15.00. Line-up: Chris Perrin (clarinet, tenor sax); Phil Rutherford (sousaphone); David Gray (trombone, trumpet, vocals); Brian Bennett (banjo). To book a table tel: 01661 833188.
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: East Coast Swing Band @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Dilutey Juice @ Independent, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £10.00. + £1.00. bf.
Fri 22: Archipelago @ Poprecs, High St. West, Sunderland. 7:00pm. £10.00. Multi-bill, Archipelago on stage 8:00pm. A Boundaries Festival event.
Fri 22: Groovetrain @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. £15.00. + bf. 8:45pm (7:30pm doors).

Sat 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay. 11:00-1:00pm. £6.00. at the door, £4.00. advance. Tel: 0191 691 7090. A Spanish City ‘Xmas Market’ event in the Champagne Bar.
Sat 23: Washboard Resonators @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Sat 23: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Friday, December 06, 2019

CD Review: Strictly Smokin' Big Band - Christmas Live Gosforth Civic Theatre

(Review by Russell)

Live albums are a particular love of your reviewer. Studio perfection is cast aside in favour of capturing the 'one take' moment in front of an audience. The Strictly Smokin' Big Band (from here on 'SSBB') is a band to hear in concert, preferably close up, so close a slide trombone could knock you off your perch. Christmas Live Gosforth Civic Theatre was recorded in December 2018 and its release on the eve of the SSBB's sold out 2019 two-nighter in Gosforth is timely, to say the least. 

This new CD features the first team with a couple of top quality deps drafted in for the occasion. MD Michael Lamb leads from the front on a Sammy Nestico arrangement of Jingle Bells. The standard set, the SSBB, collectively and individually, steps up to the mark and, for those who were there on the night(s), this recording will bring it all flooding back. We thought it was good last year, hearing it on CD confirms it, it was fantastic! 

A double helping of band vocalist Alice Grace - Fascinating Rhythm and a wonderful Time After Time with Jamie Toms soloing on tenor sax - confirms what we already knew, Ms Grace is a star. Joy to the World hears the ensemble at its best with a one-shot top C coda from Dick Stacey and our gum-chewing trumpeter absolutely nails it! MD Lamb, as if he didn't have enough to think about, had the presence of mind to name check his fellow trumpeter: ...and ridiculously high notes from Dick Stacey!

Ms Grace and co-vocalist F'reez have a ball on Winter Wonderland (arr. Callum Au, baritone sax intro Laurie Rangecroft) and again on Last Christmas. The album is a joy to listen to from first note to last, Liam Gaughan's engineering, mastering and mixing (the latter in conjunction with Michael Lamb) of the album are exemplary, and the finale – Fairy Tale of New York - with our vocalists' genial repartee supported by a superb big band makes Christmas Live Gosforth Civic Theatre the ideal Christmas present.        
  
With a playing time of more than forty five minutes across eleven tracks selected from two concert performances (December 14-15, 2018), Christmas Live Gosforth Civic Theatre is an excellent example of what the SSBB is all about. 
Russell

Alice Grace (vocals), F'reez (vocals); Steve Summers, Keith Robinson, Jamie Toms, Matthew Forster, Laurie Rangecroft (reeds); Gordon Marshall, Dick Stacey, Michael Lamb, Pete Tanton (trumpets); Kieran Parnaby, Mark Ferris, Chris Gray, John Flood (trombones); Graham Don (piano); Pawel Jedrzejewski (guitar); Michael Whent (bass guitar); Guy Swinton (drums)

Christmas Live at Gosforth Civic Theatre is available on Jazz Sound Records (catalogue no. JSR010), visit: www.strictly-smokin.co.uk. The album is also available from the band at gigs.    
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