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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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Thu 03: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 03: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Practices of Freedom workshop @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Book at: www.eventbrite.com.
Thu 03: Alcyona Mick + Juliana Day @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. & £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM (Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music) in assoc. w. Northern Silents & JNE.
Thu 03: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 03: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Guest band night w. '58 Jazz Collective led by trumpeter Kevin Eland with Paul Donnelly (guitar); Donna Hewitt (saxes); Dave Archbold (keys); John Daniel (bass); Alex Cromarty (drums); Darren Moore (percussion) + JAN SPENCELAYH!. Free.

Fri 04: Satoko Fujii @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 04: Amirtha Kidambi w. Manon McCoy @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. £8.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. Gem Arts, JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Ziv Taubenfeld/Olie Brice/Kresten Osgood + Andy Champion + Izumi Kimura & Gerry
Hemingway @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: As I Sing & Breathe @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘Songs & Improvisations’ - Nicols, Dalling & guests.
Fri 04: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 04: John Rowland Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Training @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 2:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘A workshop for musical improvisers’. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Wylam Village Institute, Church Road, Wylam NE41 8AP. Doors 7:00pm. Tickets £15.00. + £1.50. bf, available from: www.gigantic.com.
Sat 05: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Bright Street Big Band @ Washington Arts Centre. From 7:00pm. £12.00. Bright Street Big Band on stage at 7:30pm, preceded at 7:00pm by a swing dance taster session.
Sat 05: J.A.M. String Collective + Tara Cunningham + The Flame @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Sat 05: Heavy Drunk @ Anarchy Brewery, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.00. + £1.50. bf. ‘Mississippi Delta Blues Experience’ feat. Heavy Drunk, Watermelon Slim & Leonardo Giuliani.
Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Night @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. Nicols, Dalling ao. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 05: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Swarland Village Hall NE65 9JG. 8:00pm. £12.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm (12:30pm doors). £7.50.
Sun 06: Luis Verde Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 06: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: Catriona Bourne Quartet + Heather Ferrier + Emma Johson’s Gravy Boat @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & The Globe.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30-8:30pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Abigail Pogson, Managing Director, Sage Gateshead tells us her thoughts on the past week...

“This will only exist in the moment…” 

These were the last words spoken in Sage One before we closed to the public for the foreseeable future, in response to government advice and for the safety of our audiences, our team and our musicians. The words were spoken by the wonderful Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero, who always finishes her concerts with an improvisation. Improvisation is the purest form of ‘only existing in this moment’ – not written down, not thought about in advance, always in response to a musical idea which she asks an audience member to suggest.  

She gave this last concert on the back of a rollercoaster 48 hours in which she thought she had Coronavirus, self-isolated, then tested negative, missing her first concert scheduled at Sage Gateshead, then played her second with us as her country’s borders were closing and the number of flights to get her back home to Spain was decreasing by the minute. In the end, this last concert (which we all knew in our hearts it was) was exceptional and very moving. 

Indeed the whole sequence of performances last week in Sage One – widely accepted as the best concert hall in Europe – reminded me of the power of live performance and the power of different music for different contexts. As closure steadily became inevitable, the diversity of Sage Gateshead’s musical and audience reach played out in three days. 

On the Wednesday, Sage Gateshead was filled with the incredible sound of 900 Year 4 pupils from 30 Gateshead and South Tyneside schools, lifting the roof of Sage One with their voices in front of an audience of parents and friends – an audience which had come to watch the culmination of several months of work by them in school. 

On Thursday, The Lightning Seeds opened their six date UK tour at Sage Gateshead and as everyone got on their feet and sang and danced their hearts away to Football’s Coming Home, three decades faded away and we were in a totally different time. 

On Friday, Royal Northern Sinfonia performed music written across a whole century, composed by a Norwegian and two Russians, with a conductor from France and soloist from Germany.  It’s hard to imagine three more different concerts, three more different audiences, three more different atmospheres. 

‘This only exists in the moment’ applies to any live performance  – these words capture what is so compelling and unique about live performance. A group of people who don’t know each other, select to come together to form a community – an audience – for a short period of time. Only they will have this experience, and when it’s over, it’s gone. 

Time and again people tell me it’s not just about the magic of a great musician at their height which brings them to gigs, it’s also that it’s shared with other people and the electric atmosphere which this creates.  Last week the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra proved this by streaming a concert in an empty auditorium – brilliant music and musicians, led by the legendary Sir Simon Rattle. A fantastic thing to do, and something we will all do a lot of in coming times. But no audience, no atmosphere, no community, no immediate exchange. 

So this is a curious time to run an organisation for which a core part of our purpose is to organise ‘massed gatherings’ for over 1000 people on a daily basis.  We do much much more than performances -we teach young people, give classes to adults, support the next generation of musicians from the North, use music to help people who are vulnerable, work in communities across the region. We are one of the biggest cultural charities in the country. But this week it is the performances – perhaps the most visible aspect of the charity’s work – which I’ve been thinking about. And as we have closed down the building, postponing all of our concerts, classes and activity, the building feels incomplete  –  empty with no preparation or anticipation of an event which is just around the corner. No anticipation of an audience – of parents anticipating hearing their children, of long term fans anticipating hearing music which is the soundtrack of another part of their life, of people wanting to hear something new, to have their ears opened to a new world of sound. 

As the building has fallen silent, one thing has been really clear to me – live music will be back. We are heading into a time when gigs will go online, we’ll build virtual choirs, music classes will take via Facetime. We will all live closer to home and in much smaller networks for a while. But beyond this, the live, face to face, in-person experience will be back.  As our box office team are beginning the process of calling every audience member who has a ticket for a concert which won’t go ahead on the planned date, something has started to happen. Rather than a refund, people have started to donate their ticket back to the charity.  Knowing the risk which the charity – like so many others – will be at through this crisis, members of our audience have opted to help us out. This will enable us to keep things secure for our musicians, our teachers, our staff and to be here at the end of this – to give world class performances, to teach people of all ages, to serve our communities, to use music to help people in their lives. We’re incredibly grateful for this generosity and that people are thinking of us. 

Above all I wonder whether this is a sign of the value of live music and that unique atmosphere created by an audience coming together for a brief time to hear something which only ‘in this moment’. 
Keep safe 
Abigail Pogson 
Managing Director
Sage Gateshead

1 comment :

Hugh said...

I was at the Gabriela Montero concert and it was indeed very moving. The audience were (with one exception) at one with the artist.

Hopefully the improvisation will "exist only in the moment" due to the prompt intervention of one of the staff when an idiot seated further down the hall was noted to be recording on their phone. At the end of the performance another (or possibly the same) idiot was videoing the artist's progress from the piano to the exit doors.

Absolutely unbelievable - and so rude!

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