Total Pageviews

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

17328 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 612 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (Sept. 5).

From This Moment On ...

September

Tue 10: ???

Wed 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 11: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 11: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 11: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 12: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 12: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:30pm. £4.00. ‘A Great Day in Harlem’.
Thu 12: The Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Pete Tanton & co.
Thu 12: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Donna Hewitt, Bill Watson, Dave Archbold, Adrian Beadnell, Mark Hawkins.

Fri 13: Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Two pianos, two pianists! SOLD OUT!
Fri 13: Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Dilutey Juice @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.00. adv..
Fri 13: Ray Stubbs R & B All-stars @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Classic blues.

Sat 14: Jeff Barnhart’s Silent Film Fest @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 14: Customs House Big Band w. Ruth Lambert @ St Paul’s Centre, St Paul’s Gardens, Spennymoor DL16 7LR. 7:00pm (6:45pm doors). Tickets £10.00. from the venue or tel: 01388 813404. A ‘BYOB’ event.
Sat 14: Emma Wilson @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00. Acoustic blues.
Sat 14: Rat Pack - Swingin’ at the Sands @ Billingham Forum. 7:30pm.

Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Panharmonia @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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!

Tuesday, August 04, 2020

The Chicago Cellar Boys @ Bix Virtual Jazz Fest 2020 - August 1

Andy Schumm, John Otto, Natalie Scharf (reeds); Paul Asaro (piano, vocals); Leah Bezin (banjo); Dave Bock (brass bass) 

This year's Bix Jazz Fest, scheduled to take place at the Rhythm City Casino Resort in Davenport, Iowa, took refuge in the now familar online world in which many musicians, however reluctantly, now reside. Now in its forty ninth year - and not to be confused with the 'other' Bix Fest in Racine, Wisconsin held earlier in the year - the event is a celebration of the music of Leon Bismark Beiderbecke. 

On Saturday afternoon (August 1) Andy Schumm's Cellar Boys performed a socially distanced set, not from Iowa, rather from their base in Chicago, Illinois. Seated under an awning in 25° mid-summer heat, bandleader Andy Schumm lead his hot (in every sense of the word!) sextet in a set of approximately forty five minutes featuring standard repertoire with one or two originals included for good measure. 

Multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist Schumm left it to pianist Paul Asaro to introduce the numbers to the band's virtual audience. The conclusion of each number was greeted with an eerie silence. It must have been somewhat disconcerting but perhaps the Cellar Boys kept telling themselves that hundreds, possibly thousands, were applauding out there in cyberspace. 

After Awhile got things underway and each and every subsequent number demonstrated the band's exemplary ensemble work. The front line reeds - Messrs Andy Schumm and John Otto and Ms Natalie Scharf - read their 'pegged out' charts (many of them transcribed and arranged by Schumm) as the guys (and gal!) in the engine room - Asaro, Leah Bezin and Dave Bock - endeavoured to keep cool under an Illinois sun. 

A Bix arrangement of Somebody Stole My Gal, a three-clarinet feature on Riverboat Shuffle with much adjusting of pegs to combat a summer breeze blowing in off the Chicago River, and Asaro singing Hot Lips ensured the set list held broad appeal. Schumm and Otto jousted on Love Me or Leave MeStampede (Schumm's arrangement of Fletcher Henderson) really did scatter the pigeons, and Asaro stuck with the Henderson pad to sing Here and There

As has become the norm, the live stream wasn't without its buffered interludes but, all in all, this was a top notch concert in this year of virtual performance. To close, Schumm had an idea. Calling out the number in the pad, the Cellar Boys signed off with Andy's Idea.   
Russell

No comments :

Blog Archive