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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 2023).

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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

June

Sat 03: Newcastle Record Fair @ Northumbria University, Newcastle NE8 8SB. 10:00am-3:00pm. Admission: £2.00.
Sat 03: Pedigree Jazz Band @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 03: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Sue Ferris. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 03: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 03: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 04: Jam No. 18 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Friday, December 18, 2020

How I Became Addicted to Jazz. Miles Watson reflects ...

How did I get into jazz? I didn’t, it somehow got into me. Growing up in the '40s and '50s in a house where the wireless (radio) was always on, the popular music of the day was infiltrating my brain with the dance bands and record request programmes. I first heard Muggsy Spanier, Bunny Berigan and Fats Waller on Forces Requests, the word jazz was never mentioned it was all part of the pop culture.

At the end of the war my eldest brother bought a self-changing radiogram with his demob gratuity and every week would come back from town with an eclectic selection of 78s everything from grand opera to Spike Jones. My favourite pastime was playing the B side of the popular records, Fats Wallers Moppin’ & Boppin’Shortnin’ Bread and Dinah and Pee Wee Hunt’s Somebody Else Not Me, are still fondly remembered.

Saturday evenings in the Men’s Institute listening to the football results followed by Jazz Club with the likes of Harry Parry and Freddy Randall and later in the week listening at home with ear pressed up against the speaker to catch Kenny Baker’s Dozen on Let’s Settle for Music. By then I thought I knew what jazz was all about after buying Rex Harris’ Penguin book on jazz but really the eye opener came on a visit to the Oxford Galleries to hear Freddy Randall who’s 7 piece band just about blew the roof off with not a piece of music in sight.

The direction of my interest was now set for life, listening to local and national bands and record buying. Then the highlight of my life, the appearance of Louis Armstrong at the City Hall. Like a lot of others there that night the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and the 25 bob for the ticket was the best spend of my life. The succeeding concerts by the legends and the newer stars of jazz just embedded the music that far into my soul that even marriage, family, mortgage, work and other interests could never dispel. In my 85th year and as Duke said “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” my love for the music is still as much alive in me as it was 70 years ago.

Miles Watson

4 comments :

Lance said...

Great stuff Miles and how similar are my own early memories. Louis at the City Hall, Kenny Baker and, like yourself, most of all, Freddy Randall. I was 15 or so and heard the band at Seaburn Hall. I remember Betty Smith on tenor, leaning back on her high heels and blowing some great Bud Freeman/Eddie Miller tenor. Strangely, Betty is rarely given her due when the current in theme - women in jazz - is brought up.

I digress. When I floated out of Seaburn Hall the last buses and trains had gone and I had to get a taxi home which didn't please my parents who had to fork out!

For me the Randall band was the best of the lot. Far more exciting than Humph or the trad/pop bands that followed. Only Alex Welsh compared and his personnel were mainly ex-Randall.

Russell said...

Miles, what's a 'self-changing' radiogram?

Hugh said...

Perhaps one that drops the records sequentially one on top of the other when the previous one has finished playing?

Lance said...

They were popular in the 78rpm era just after the war when electrically powered turntables replaced the old wind-up ones. You could stack 8-10 discs giving you 30+ minutes of music - in theory. In practice it wasn't all that simple. The first record played fine as the turntable had a material surface that prevented the discs from slipping. After that when it was shellac upon shellac the discs did tend to slip. Plus the weight of 7 records on 1 probably caused the turntable to slow down. The advent of the vinyl LP was welcomed by all except those who didn't want to have to buy 8 or 12 tracks in case they didn't like all of them!

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