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Bebop Spoken There

Charles McPherson: “Jazz is best heard in intimate places”. (DownBeat, 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

16611 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 1504 of them this year alone and, so far, 50 this month (July 23).

From This Moment On ...

July

Sat 27: BBC Proms: BBC Introducing stage @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 12 noon. Free. Line-up inc. Nu Groove (2:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (2:50pm); Dilutey Juice (3:50pm); SwanNek (5:00pm); Rivkala (6:00pm).
Sat 27: Nomade Swing Trio @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sat 27: Mississippi Dreamboats @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 27: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Cafédral, Owengate, Durham. 9:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.
Sat 27: Theon Cross + Knats @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 10:00pm. £22.00. BBC Proms: BBC Introducing Stage (Sage Two). A late night gig.

Sun 28: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm.
Sun 28: Miss Jean & the Ragtime Rewind Swing Band @ Fonteyn Ballroom, Dunelm House (Durham Students’ Union), Durham. 2:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.
Sun 28: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Nomade Swing Trio @ Red Lion, Alnmouth. 4:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 28: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 28: Milne Glendinning Band @ Cafédral, Owengate, Durham. 9:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.

Mon 29: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 30: ???

Wed 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 31: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 31: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

August

Thu 01: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:30pm. £4.00.
Thu 01: Funky Drummer @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 01: Elsadie & the Bobcats @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 02: Mainly Two @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT! Fri 02: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 02: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 02: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. POSTPONED!

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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