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

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).

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Paul Skerritt @ Vespa Italian Bar & Steakhouse, Primrose Hill, Jarrow. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 483 3355.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

After Hours #4: The Music of Stéphane Grappelli @ Cafédral Durham - Feb 19

(Review by Russell)

DUJS is an active organisation. Student run Durham University Jazz Society promotes jazz events across Durham City and most of them are open to the public. One such occasion is 'After Hours', a regular series focussing on a particular subject. This latest get together in Cafédral Durham on Owengate looked at the work of Stéphane Grappelli. 

Sonia Rae, a second year music student, is principally a student of classical violin with a love of jazz. Stéphane Grappelli was an obvious, but no less appealing, choice for an After Hours' gig at Cafédral Durham, a quirky, first floor student haunt just off Palace Green. The core band for the evening featured Rae with a Hot Club-style, all-strings line-up of two guitars and double bass.    


Minor SwingJ'attendrai - classic Quintette de Hot Club du France fayre. Erstwhile Durham University Big Band guitarist Tom Burgess adopted the role of Django Reinhardt with Jack Theaker as Roger Chaput or, perhaps, Joseph Reinhardt on rhythm guitar and Isaac Costello as bassist Louis Vola. The berets were absent but the ambiance wasn't. Cafédral Durham's beverages consisted of tea and coffee, no alcohol. A pot of tea it was (no coffee due to the cafe assistant's self-confessed inability to work out how to use the espresso machine!). Cafédral's amiable proprietor encouraged one and all to make a quick trip to the nearest supermarket to acquire a bottle of red, perhaps a white. What's more there would be no corkage charge. Whoosh! A mass exodus to raid the shelves of the nearby branch of Tesco met with the approval of Mine Host!

A bottle of white, bottles of Old Peculier, this was more like it. Ms Rae introduced each number and as the performance unfolded, her fellow musicians. How High the Moon brought drummer David Byfield to the stand, brushes in hand. Later in the evening pianist Angus Shennan joined Rae to provide additional chordal accompaniment. The room full of talents included Clara Falkowska who would share the spotlight with Rae, first playing fluent flugelhorn, later violin! A room full of talents, that's for sure! 

Tom Burgess brought in Nuages, Angus Shennan soloed impressively, Rae took it out with a flowing classical cadenza - yes, they're a talented bunch these Durham University students. Violinists Rae and Falkowska swapped licks on Jealousy and, as Rae commented, she would be Grappelli to Falkowska's Stuff Smith on This Can't be Love. Were we on the Left Bank? We could have been, yet, in reality, we were on Owengate in Durham City. Très bien!         
Russell 

Sonia Rae (violin); Tom Burgess (guitar); Jack Theaker (guitar); Isaac Costello (double bass); Angus Shennan (keyboards); David Byfield (drums) + Clara Falkowska (flugelhorn, violin).  

No comments :

Blog Archive