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Bebop Spoken There

Kelly Sill: "Just because everyone is playing through the changes in the same time doesn't mean they're actually playing together" - (JazzTimes March/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

15260 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 279 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (March 29).

From This Moment On ...

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: Jambone @ Sage Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (book online). A YMP! event in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 01: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
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.

Tue 04: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 04: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Bradley Johnston (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations. Feat. John Pope, Marie Shreer, John Garner.
Thu 06: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 06: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Note earlier start time.

Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 07: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 07: Finntet + Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.
Fri 07: TBA @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Blind Pig Blues Club.

Sunday, November 21, 2021

A Salute to Humphrey Lyttelton @ Black Swan Arts Centre, Newcastle - Nov. 20

(Photo © Mike Tilley)
Chris Hodgkins (trumpet); Henry Lowther (trumpet, flugel); Mark Bassey (trombone); Diane McLoughlin, Alex Clarke, Charlotte Glasson (reeds); Jinjoo Yoo (piano); Wayne Wilkinson (guitar); Alison Rayner (bass); Buster Birch (drums).

I've waited all year to hear a band like this! Maybe waited all my life or at least since I first heard the Lyttelton band in Camden Town Hall - the one that had Coe, Skidmore, Temperley and Pickard alongside Humph in the front line.

(Photo © Mike Tilley)
This band exuded the same amount of class - the ensembles were something else!

What a sound!

The arrangements, mainly from within the band were adapted from the originals by Harry South, Buck Clayton, Frank Griffith and Humph himself.

Chris Hodgkins was in fine form. How could he not be? With the legendary Henry Lowther standing next to him it was a case of put up or shut up! Chris also introduced the numbers with some amusing, often hilarious, quotes and anecdotes from Humph's various books and radio shows.

(Photo © Pam)
The reed section were equally tremendous Diane blowing searing alto (and soprano), gutsy tenor and agile clarinet from Alex whilst Charlotte not only excelled on baritone but also played two penny whistles simultaneously à la Roland Kirk! 
(See photo).

Mark Bassey had the (hypothetical) trombone chair well and truly nailed down combining the earthiness of some of Humph's earlier bands with the more melodic approach of his later years.
(Photo © Mike Tilley)

The rhythm section of Birch and Rayner we knew from their recent gig at the Globe with Alison's own band ARQ that they would do the biz which of course they did admirably.

(Photo © Mike Tilley)
It was great to meet and hear Jinjoo live and, despite the limitations of the Nord (there's never a Steinway when you need one), the pianist more than lived up to expectations.

Because of the size of the band solos were limited to one or two choruses which is no bad thing although audiences seem to be reluctant to applaud anything under ten choruses these days! An exception was Henry Lowther's flugelhorn feature on Susan - a piece dedicated to Humph's former manager Susan Da Costa.

The standing ovation at the end, however, showed just how much love there was in the room for the band, the music and, of course, Humph in this the hundredth year of his birth - Lance

Cross a Busy Street; Tribal Dance; Renaissance Man; Fat Tuesday; Mezzrow; Bad Penny Blues; Kath Meets Humph; Cecil Beaton Strides Again; In Swinger; Holy Main; Late Night Final; Wrestler's Tricks; One For Buck; Susan; Let's Get Out.

1 comment :

Simon Spillett (on F/b) said...

Really good to read the set list. I had feared this was music that would get 'reimagined' into something else. Glad to hear it's keeping faith with Humph's own ideas.

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