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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

15867 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 874 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (Sept. 25).

From This Moment On ...

September

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.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Paul Wight (drums).

Thursday, September 30, 2021

Scarborough Jazz Festival: Saturday Evening - Sept. 25

Okay it wasn’t Alphonse Mouzon or Dizzy again, but it was a choice that had to be made. Some local – north east – loyalty or a Nikki Iles Orchestra threatening some ‘serious’ guests. We weren’t having fish and chips (again) on my sixtieth birthday and we tend to eat late but, in the end, it came down to we’ve seen Zoë Gilby many times and will hopefully see her many more times.

The threats were real: Gareth Lockrane on flute and fluty things, guitarist Mike Walker, I hadn’t seen since a stunning performance at Southport, saxophonist Julian Siegel since the Partisans at Pizza Express, and many more.

Like much of the festival, it was postponed from last year and she spotted the irony that it was to be called the ‘face to face’ tour.

It began with a slow intro that reminded me of Gil Evans’ intro to So What on the famous television version. A piece called Wild Oak by another fine lady pianist, the late great Geri Allen. Although we would miss Zoë Gilby, Iles played a different north east connection; a piece about Red Ellen [Wilkinson], a labour party MP and minister who played a major role in the Jarrow March in 1936.

Hush was a piece inspired by Rufus Reid that she wrote for a trio and then adapted for a big band. Caged Bird was inspired by the lockdown and was a commission by the International Society in America. High Lands was arranged by Stan Sulzmann and featured her and Lockrane on some type of whistle.

I always think a flute, or better still flutes – and she had saxophonists switching to flute – add another dimension to a big band, giving an authentic American feel, perhaps inspired by countless cop show theme tunes, and none the worse for that.   

By the time we returned, it felt like I must have the largest corn or sore in the world on the little toe of my left foot, but - worryingly - there wasn’t a mark at all, raising alarms that it might be broken.  

When Alan Barnes introduced Jean Toussaint he observed that most musicians play the music but a small number of bands drive the music forward and one such band was Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Over the years they featured many of the great names in jazz, including Donald Byrd, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Kenny Garrett and Jean Toussaint. Despite Toussaint now being resident in the UK, this was nevertheless a seriously big deal.

Shorter’s Palladium started things off as a quartet of sax, piano, bass and drums, a track off Weather Report’s Heavy Weather album I’ve been unable to find in his solo career. Kenny Dorham’s Wind Mill, an artist associated with the pre-history of the Messengers, and they were joined by a trumpeter who’d played in the Koller band the night before and I believe was Byron Wallen, though I’m not certain.

After two days of jazz, and on our seventh band, this really was really real jazz, really. Trombonist Dennis Rollins had joined them to complete the all-star sextet, alongside Andy McCormack on piano, Orlando Fleming on bass and Ben Brown on drums - even  Major Changes, Doc and Amabo all came from his latest CD Brother Raymond, the latter a tribute to Obama (spelt backwards) which drew applause for the former American president, and a high-spot of the live set.

Even my left foot couldn’t dampen my spirits and it seems being sixty isn’t so bad after all.   Steve T

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