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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 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!"

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

Postage

16051 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1058 of them this year alone and, so far, 12 this month (Dec. 6).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sat 09: Prudhoe Community Band @ Central Station, Newcastle. 10:00am - 12 noon. Charity fundraiser.
Sat 09: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Skinnergate, Darlington. 1:00pm.
Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Alan Law, Paul Grainger & Abbie Finn @ Darlington Market, Market Square, Darlington. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘Christmas Market’ outdoor gig. Wrap up warm!
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Funk Soul Sista @ Stack, Seaburn. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Beth Clarke @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Whittingham Memorial Institute, Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00., £10.00.
Sun 10: Tele-Port @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Zhenya Strigalev.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Interim Final Recitals @ Newcastle University. Details TBC.

Tue 12: Stu Collingwood Organ Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £10.00.

Wed 13: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 13: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 13: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Wed 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Hot Fingers @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 14: After Hours Student Jazz Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. . Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 14: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Mo Scott ‘Little Mo’s Festive Appearance’ @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Tees Hot Club w. Kevin Eland, Josh Bentham, Garry Hadfield, Adrian Beadnell @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 15: Paul Edis @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 15: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 15: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: Paul Skerritt @ Black Horse Inn, Crook. From 7:00pm.
Fri 15: Paul Edis: A Jazzy Christmas @ St Cuhtbert's Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00. SOLD OUT! Waiting list open.
Fri 15: Zoë Gilby Trio @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £12.00. Fri 15: Strictly Smokin' Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. First night of two.
Fri 15: Darlington Big Band @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £10.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 15: Baghdaddies @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £14.00.; £10.00.

Friday, December 06, 2019

The Xhosa Cole Quartet @ the Lescar, Sheffield, - Dec. 4

Xhosa Cole (tenor sax), Jay Phelps (trumpet), James Owston (bass), Jim Bashford (drums).
(Review by Steve T)

When we arrived the queue was already out the door. Had it got round that, not only is he the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year, but now also confirmed as Best Newcomer at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards? It's so nice for them do something that improves our lives for a change.

Fresh from the ceremony the previous evening, he arrived with a crack chord-less quartet for a night of classic, cutting edge jazz.

His stall was set out straight off, his horn honking and squeaking, though wonderfully fluid and controlled; raw and real and it was clear any script was left at the door. Trane and Sonny Rollins were the first names to spring to mind.

Canadian trumpeter Jay Phelps held a note and held his own, taking it down then taking it slow before taking it up.

A bass solo from fellow BBC nominee James Owston, his nimble fingers all over his instrument, but bringing a heavy, thick sound and, together with Jim Bashford effortlessly switching it around on kit, keeping things as serious as your life, sax and trumpet blowing as the mood took them, sometimes together, sometimes alone, sometimes entwined.

References came thick and fast; too fast for me to figure them out and it deserved somebody more eloquent, with more knowledge of jazz than me to unpick the influences converging from several of jazz's golden ages: bebop, hard-bop, free jazz, Blue Note, all coalesced into something timeless.

Xhosa apologised for the squeaks attributing it to a new old mouthpiece but I'm not sure anybody objected; I certainly didn't.

A lovely, intelligent slow piece followed, Deep Blue written by Owston ahead of a beautiful version of Yesterdays, Xhosa sitting one out as Phelps built up to some sleazy blowing.        

The first set ended with Billie's Bounce to mark a forthcoming centenary for Bird, Xhosa acknowledging his influence and claiming him as the man that made it all happen; why he was there, why we were there.

Only now did I realise just how crammed the small room was, people standing behind the bar with the shutters down, others outside just listening.

Part two was more of the same, insomuch as it was raw and real with a far greater level of spontaneity than most so-called free jazz.

By way of acknowledgement, Ornette's Rambling followed before Monk's Reflections gave Phelps a break, Xhosa playing a sax intro, rhythm watching for a signal or just waiting for him to take the horn out of his mouth. Once he'd explored all the possibilities Owston took another assured solo with Bashford's light brushwork in support.

More acknowledgement of major influences: Clifford Brown and Sonny Rollins and Joshua Redman on a take of Darn That Dream before another Monk piece I missed the title of and didn't recognise.   

After a false start and some discussion between the two horn players, somebody asked if they even knew each other, to which they shook hands by way of introduction.

Sonny Rollins' Kiss and Run finished things off, Xhosa acknowledging the significance of one of the most brilliant musicians of C20th and the greatest living jazz artist (though I feel a Lance 'in my opinion' being snuck in, I think any living jazz artist would be embarrassed by any suggestion they're greater than Sonny). 

There really wasn't anything left to say.
Jez Matthews - mastered ceremonies with the same informed enthusiasm as last time we visited the Lescar - Jazz Venue of the Year 2018 in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards - and he must feel his life is charmed at the moment, with Matt Anderson next week and the North East's very own Zoë Gilby - 2019 Vocalist of the Year in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards - the following week.

But tonight all our Christmases came at once. 
Steve T

1 comment :

Ray Johnson (on F/b). said...

Crikey. It's years since I've been to the Lescar. Great venue.

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