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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

17372 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 656 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (Sept. 17).

From This Moment On ...

September

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: Vieux Carré Hot Four @ The Beehive, Hartley Lane, Earsdon Whitley Bay NE25 0SZ. 4:30pm-6:30pm.
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!

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Paul Booth with the Paul Edis Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert! SOLD OUT!

Tue 24: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv. from Tully’s of Rothbury). Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 24: Sarah Gillespie @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £16.50. Duo performance with Chris Montague.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

The Abbie Finn Trio @ The Fox Inn, Hexham - Feb 18

Abbie Finn (drums); Harry Keeble (tenor sax, soprano sax); Paul Grainger (double bass) 
(Review by Russell)

Duke Pearson, Chick Corea, Cole Porter, John Coltrane, Paul Grainger - these the first tranche of composers on the Abbie Finn Trio's set list. Hexham Jazz Club was up and running once more with a first gig of the year at the Fox Inn on West End Terrace.  

Drummer Abbie was making a first visit to the Northumberland market town with her trio - Harry Keeble (tenor sax) and Paul Grainger (bass). An amiable, no nonsense trio, Abbie and the boys set up without fuss, chatting to all and sundry as gig-goers walked through the door. Jeannine (D Pearson) for openers played to an attentive crowd, many of whom were hearing Abbie and Harry for the first time. Windows (C Corea) a 'contemporary' selection then a GASbook choice, the perennial favourite Love for Sale. Three numbers, more than enough for Hexham Jazz Club's regulars to conclude that these guys could play. John Coltrane no longer frightens the horses and our Tyne valley residents took it all in their collective stride as Keeble stretched out on Moment's Notice

Abbie handled the majority of the announcements and in introducing Paul Grainger's Swim its composer said words to the effect: From Coltrane to me, thanks very much! Much hilarity ensued with our bandleader saying to PG: No pressure, then! And it can be reported that our double bassist's composition more than justified its place in the set list. A fine first set drew to a close with more mirth as Abbie introduced a Don Grolnick chart, a chart which originally featured Michael Brecker. AF was about to say: And Michael Brecker isn't here tonight when Keeble interjected: [Brecker]...is standing here! There's nowt like self confidence!

An indication of a good gig has to be a one room community pub's clientele listening as one. And that's what the Fox's jazz  - and non-jazz regulars - did. A second set comprising the likes of Juan Tizol's Caravan (slow tempo, Finn excelling), How High the Moon into Orinithology, Keeble laying down a brilliant tenor solo on Joe Henderson's Recorda Me and more of the same on Giant Steps made this February night out in Hexham one to remember. 

The Abbie Finn Trio went out on Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise and Victor Feldman's Seven Steps to Heaven. It had been a great start to 2020, there is more good stuff scheduled at the Fox over the next couple of months or so and, on the evidence of this performance, the Abbie Finn trio will be welcome to return anytime.    
Russell  

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