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Bebop Spoken There

Ambrose Akinmusire: “ I am certainly always aware of what the masses are doing. And when I see too many people going one way, I'm going another way - even when I don't know what's over that way". DownBeat, March, 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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Castillo Neuvo Trio + Conor Emery & His ‘Bones Band @ The Grove, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00. (£7.00. student).
Thu 21: Remi Banklyn + Chris Corcoran Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.50. Chicago blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime piano.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Nauta + Remy CB + Last Orders @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). Free.
Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 22: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 23: Jambone @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:30pm. Free (ticketed). End of term performance in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 23: Red Kites Jazz @ Rowlands Gill Community Centre NE39 1JB. 7:00pm. Tickets: £12.00. (gibsidecommunityfarm@gmail.com). A ‘Build a Barn’ fundraiser. BYOB, tea/coffee available.
Sat 23: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00. + bf (book in person at venue - no booking fee!). Featuring pianist Martin Litton.
Sat 23: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 24: Luis Verde @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Verde (alto sax); Joe Steels (guitar); John Pope (double bass); John Hirst (drums). Alto sax brilliance!
Sun 24: Elsie Franklin @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Country blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Sun 24: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Las Vegas Live with the Rat Pack @ The Forum, Billingham.
Sun 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Otterburn Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sun 24: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Note start time - 7:00pm.
Sun 24: Bold Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Monday, June 14, 2021

Reminiscing in (and out of) Tempo by Andy Hudson - Part Two

Having kicked off last week with the tale of  how, in my first  few months here in the North East, myself and   a fellow student, Ivan Dunne    who shared my passion for both rugby and jazz,   blew our entire SRC grant on supporting a concert by the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the City Hall. I still maintain that it was worth it to hear that horn section with Paul Gonsalves, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney and the extraordinary Cat Anderson on screaming high note trumpet. We took them out for a pint afterwards - the rest is somewhat hazy…

Talking of hazy, in the mid-1970s I managed a bit of a coup in securing the first ever BBC Live outside broadcast – You’ll perhaps remember that this was achieved by playing Radio 3 Audio along with BBC2 TV.

We constructed an unlikely concert as part of the Newcastle Jazz Festival in November '76 – 4 sets

1. The Alex Welsh Band with Bud Freeman, tenor sax. 2. Soft Machine. 3. The Syd Lawrence Orchestra with Annie Ross, vocal. 4. The Roland Kirk Quintet with Steve Turré, trombone, Hilton Ruiz, piano.

So where’s the hazy bit?

Introduced for Live TV by Spike Milligan …. HINT!

As this was of enormous prestige and high technical challenge, the University Theatre (as it was then) was awash with BBC brass (close to 100 of them mostly staying at the Gosforth Park Hotel).

Hazy part 1 – The Sound check.

Enter stage left – Rahsaan Roland Kirk, crashing into the mic array sending them into the theatre front row. Upon re-assembly, a rather urgent young BBC Floor Manager echoed his instructions from the mobile studio in the car park outside.

Mr Kirk sir could you and the band play a piece for us

“Harrumph! “

Whereupon Kirk hit into a medium swing number Indiana – played in a Lester Young Style that would have happily sat in Steve Andrews’ Savannah Syncopators repertoire.

“Thank you Mr Kirk – perhaps now a more up tempo piece.”

“Mo Fokel “  or something similar.

1-2,-1234 count in by Kirk of at least 280 bpm into a blistering Indiana.

“Thank you Mr Kirk – I believe you play more than one instrument at once – might we hear something?”

“Mo Fukel sona bits” or something similar.

Honk Honk from 2 saxes with the bells right up to the mics followed by a free form complex time band rendering in at least 3 different keys of….wait for it… Indiana!

“Thank you Mr Kirk. All fine!”

Kirk was “mo fukelin” his way off stage with a definite grin and the BBC team breathed a sigh of relief. Myself and the TV producer, Tony Cash were laughing away at the piss-take we had all been experiencing from Kirk.

The concert was, as you might expect from the line-up, of exceptional quality.

If you wanted totally predictable spot on delivery of timed autocue reportage commensurate with all the top brass of the BBC present – who would be the last person you would engage as the presenter – you got it - Spike Milligan.

ROLLING

Off the credits and into Spike in 5- 4- 3 -2 -1…- Camera 1

The Auto cue rolled and some bland text eased up the screen about to introduce the big start of Syd Lawrence. At which point Spike took out a monocle and glared threateningly into the camera affecting a German accent.

“Ladies unt Gentlemen - This is not known generally but during zee war, Syd Lawrence was a Luftwaffe pilot, who shot down Glenn Miller just to steal his arrangements unt here he is tonight to play zem – HERR SYD LAWRENCE!”

Syd and the band took at least 10 secs to stop laughing and start playing. The BBC went into the first of many flat spins, until the talented Director Robin Lough just winged it which in a sense was a better manifestation of the jazz genre.

Other memorable parts of the show to me were Soft Machine’s, John Marshall who’s drum kit was quite the largest I’d ever seen…AND of course Roland Kirk, who having crashed on stage which was the only thing that was consistent with his sound check, introduced his set with a crude sound coming from a small recorder under his shirt – The BBC thought there was breakthrough from some other sound source and were in an ultra-flat ultra-spin. But Kirk explained that Ain’t Misbehavin’ was a way of introducing his set which was to be a tribute to Fats Waller with solos on conch and many other surprises for the now, busking in the best possible way, BBC crew.

I did take Kirk along to Roy’s Two Rooms in Gallowgate for a bite to eat. I am not sure that the patron at the time, Roy Santos, had ever seen a large black man wearing a top hat have steak and fries PLUS Peach Melba….All on the same plate!

I am told, but haven’t checked myself, that extracts of that show can be purchased from the archives https://www.loc.gov/item/jots.200022199/ - Andy H.

See also: Reminiscing in (and out of) Tempo by Andy Hudson -Part One.

3 comments :

Cormac Loane said...

Fascinating reminiscences, Andy! Was that Ellington's 70th birthday concert in 1969? I was there as a 14-year-old schoolboy who had recently discovered jazz. I ventured backstage after the gig to collect autographs from the sax section - unfortunately, the only one I could find was Russell Procope. It sounds like Hodges, Gonsalves and the rest were across the road having a pint with you - if only I'd known! (And, by the way, thank you for allowing me to join the Newcastle Big Band a couple of years later - I was so lucky to have that amazing apprenticeship as a musician!)

Roly said...

I remember going a couple of times to an enjoyable jazz session in Gosforth with Cormac on alto. I knew of him from the Newcastle Big Band Sunday lunchtime sessions. It was a classic bebop quintet playing Parker stuff - Donna Lee etc. Was it at the Gosforth Hotel? An upstairs room I think. What was the full line up?
Roly

cadie@protonmail.com said...

Being a member of the audience at the time and having just re-listened to the BBC Festival broadcast from '76 with Spike Milligan's witticisms it was nice to read of these insider comments from the time of the recordings..............

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