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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio + Abbie Finn @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Monday, April 26, 2021

Ten Irish Jazz Musicians from the 1960s and 70s

Like Newcastle in the 1960s and 70s Dublin was full of venues with live music and in particular you could find clubs and bars offering live jazz most nights. As I was a frequent visitor to many of these places my BSH List of 10  is Irish jazz musicians I heard playing live during this period.

Number 1 - Rock Fox (aka Chas Meredith) - trumpet and saxophone

I first heard live jazz as a teenager in our local village hall in Foxrock outside Dublin. It was a mainstream seven-piece group called the Butler Fox Jazz Band and the sound of all the musicians playing together at full volume made an indelible impression on the 50 or so youngsters crammed into the tiny room. One of the leaders, Rock Fox, was an amateur jazz historian who made wonderfully long-winded introductions to each track, particularly those by his favourite composer Duke Ellington, in a rich, mellifluous accent that greatly increased the entertainment value of the session. 

We also liked him because he actually lived locally and because he was a practising solicitor called Chas Meredith. when he started playing professionally he needed a stage name at short notice and took inspiration from our village. No wonder I was drawn to the music as, thanks to Chas Meredith, jazz was embedded in our village’s name from the late 1950s.

As well as his erudite intros, Rock Fox was a very good trumpet and saxophone player and excellent arranger and he and the band were regularly called upon to back visiting British and American jazz stars during visits to Ireland. He famously accommodated Gerry Mulligan in his house for a number of weeks in the early 1970s and took him on an elegantly manic series of gigs around the country.

I saw the band a lot during those early years and caught up with it a few times later on trips back home. Rock Fox was still going strong and playing with different bands at least 40 years after I first heard him and for a long time he had an influential and long running jazz programme on Irish national radio. He is generally recognised as one of the important figures in the development of jazz in Ireland.

About five years ago I had the genuine pleasure of interviewing Rock Fox for a musical project I was working on and after two hours of fascinating but unfinished memories we decided to stop and arrange another time. Unfortunately, he died shortly afterwards and I was never able to complete the interview. This was a real sadness as we had only reached 1952 so I never did get to talk to him in detail about those early sessions that were so important to me.

JC

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