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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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!"

Postage

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

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

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