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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.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Rico's Xmas Popup Louis - Dec. 18

Rico Tomasso (cornet, trumpet, vocals, Santa Hat); Tom 'Spats' Langham (guitar, banjo, vocals, photoshopped Santa hat)

Well, it's that time of year, isn't it? Rico Tomasso's final Popup Louis of 2020, the last one before next week's 'big day', time to dig out the Santa hats. Since the world changed (March 2020) trumpeter Rico Tomasso has scarcely missed a week in his long-running Popup Louis Friday evening date with his many online fans. The one or two he has missed were due to our host having an actual gig - remember them? 
Rico's 'Ale of the Week' was a deadly 7% brew from Norfolk, your reviewer settling for a bottle of Rivet Catcher (a 4% session beer), once brewed by the defunct Jarrow Brewery, now in the portfolio of the Great North Eastern Brewing Co., up the road in Dunston. Upon realising his beer was a tad on the strong side, Rico suggested he'd take it easy...maybe not! 

Tonight's session reunited Rico with Spats. Not 'with his spats', rather with Thomas 'Spats' Langham. Spats is a student of popular song, predominately 1910s-1930s' vintage. As Rico cued up each track (Spats recorded his guitar/banjo/vocal parts during the week), our host made the association with landmark, or favourite, recordings. At the Christmas Ball (Bessie Smith the association) got the show on the road, Spats singing. 

The Love Nest (Bix), Santa Claus Came in the Spring* (Benny G, Putney Dandridge), 1950s Louis' rendition of Chlo-e (Song of the Swamp), also an early-career success for Ethel Waters some two decades earlier. Rico's cornet wasn't behaving itself, the valves were sticking. A switch to trumpet would remedy the situation...

Winter Wonderland taken at an unusually slow tempo (Louis), Rico singing. Our man still wasn't happy with his choice of horn. Rico looked over his shoulder, opened a case and took out what he called his 'proper' horn, his Conn Victor. Seemingly content, Rico joined Spats on There Ain't no Man Worth the Salt of My Tears (Bix, Bing, Peggy, Annette Hanshaw), Spats on banjo, singing the vocal part. 

Rico expressed surprise that they had got through the set list so quickly, musing that he hadn't nattered as much as usual! Three to go...White Christmas (Spats playing guitar as he sang), a request from an online Chilean for Swing That Music (Rico vocals, Spats guitar), then, a good 'un, What a Wonderful World. Yes, indeed. Rico's Popup Louis returns January 8, 2021.   
    
* A song for our times? 
Russell    
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