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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 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

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Mon 16: Swing Manouche @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: John Hallam with the James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert!

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 1:00-2:45pm. Free.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Jude Murphy & Alan Law @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free.
Sun 22: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Richard Herdman @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: Remy CB Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Remi, 2024 Newcastle Uni graduate, superb soul/blues voice!

Saturday, February 29, 2020

Great North Big Band Jazz Festival 2020: Musicians Unlimited & Festival Big Band (Day 1) - Feb 28

(Review by Russell)

Festival director Bill Watson introduced the opening evening of the seventeenth edition of the Great North Big Band Jazz Festival. The seventeenth?! Where has the time gone? The years have flown by! For most of that time the GNBBJF took place in Sunderland due to its links with the University of Sunderland although in recent times Park View Community Centre in Chester le Street has been home to one of the great events in the jazz calendar. 

Friday evening featured a concert performance with the competition element taking place across Saturday and Sunday. Mick Donnelly's renowned Musicians Unlimited launched into Doc Severinson's punchy arrangment of In the Mood. Forget saccharine Miller - with Sue Ferris (tenor sax), Mark Toomey (alto sax) and trumpeters Kevin Eland and GNBBJF director Bill Watson blowing hard things were well and truly under way.

Vocalists Paul Skerritt (Georgia on my Mind) and Jan Spencelayh (What a Diff'rence a day Makes) took centre stage, standing in the wings waiting for to be called from time to time. Veteran trombonist Neville Hartley deservedly won applause for a marvellous solo on Rollins' Doxy, the band (with Marcus Brown guest pianist!) won applause for its rollercoaster take on Gordon Goodwin's High Maintenance (Mick Shoulder nailing the bass part) and Ferris the flautist blew the roof off on the band's closing number - Tito Puente's Oye Como Va.

Earlier the Festival Big Band, directed by the multi-tasking Bill Watson, played a short set principally comprising NYJO charts BW had acquired down the years from Bill Ashton. Stellar names were responsible for writing, arranging or performing the numbers dusted off by Watson..Ronnie Pipe, Alan Downey, Phil Todd to name but three.

The band breezed through a set list which included Louis Bellson and Sammy Nestico charts and feature spots for key soloists, a particular highlight being a flugelhorn duel between Watson and young gun Tom Hill. To close an enjoyable set the Festival Band was joined by three guest soloists, first Mick Donnelly blowing killer tenor sax, Sue Ferris fearlessly following on flute (if any one could do it, Ferris could, and did!) and on alto sax, Mark Toomey. It had been a grand start to GNBBJF 2020. 
Russell      

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