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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Miners' Picnic @ Woodhorn, Ashington. Music inc. Northern Monkey Brass Band (3:00-3:50pm); New York Brass Band (4:00-4:55pm).
Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Jeremy McMurray's Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Ropner Park, Stockton TS18 4EF. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 13: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 13: Infusion Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 13: Alice Grace & Pawel Jedrzejewski @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv.).

Wednesday, March 09, 2022

GNBBJF- Sunday March 6 (School Section)

The pandemic hit hard. Individuals and institutions were denied every day activities. Schools were unable to pursue music education programmes with participation in extra-curricular events especially hard hit. Now, in supposedly post-Covid times, there is something of a gradual resumption of those sorely missed activities. Given the circumstances, it came as little surprise that many school bands were absent from this year's Great North Big Band Jazz Festival. However, two bands did make it to Chester le Street and they were determined to enjoy themselves. The bands - Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band and St Aidan's Swing Band - had previously enjoyed success at the GNBBJF and it would be good to hear them once again. Of course many young musicians from previous years have moved on, their chairs in the orchestra now occupied by a new crop of talented musicians.

Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band (MD Tom Gledhill) made the journey from Telford, Shropshire (a round trip of something like 250 miles) as defending champions, the school's most recent success at the GNBBJF being in pre-Covid March 2020. As the Telford boys and girls took their seats on stage, a quick head count revealed no fewer than eleven of the twelve - yes, eleven of twelve! - reeds were young female musicians. The band's concert set comprised numbers by Gordon Goodwin, Radiohead, Sondheim and Lennon and McCartney.

Crunchie Frog (comp. G Goodwin) opened the programme, Radiohead's Bodysnatchers (arr. Fred Sturm) featured a fine soprano sax solo, and, in marked contrast, Bob Lowden's arrangement of Stephen Sondheim's anthemic Send in the Clowns was afforded a respectful treatment (trombone and alto sax to the fore). To close an impressive set, the band went uptempo with the Fab Four's Got to Get You into My Life

St Aidan's Swing Band (MD Vicki Elliott) travelled from Harrogate, a somewhat shorter journey than that undertaken by Abraham Darby! It was way back in 2012 at North Shore in Sunderland that Vicki Elliott first brought a band to the GNBBJF. Indeed, it was a winning debut (charts by Wynton Marsalis and Jordan Smith among others). Since then, student musicians have come and gone and the school's regular participation at a competing/clashing brass band event elsewhere has frequently denied the Swing Band of some of its key members. What would this year's band have to offer? Three numbers - Gordon Goodwin's Backrow Politics, Dave Volpe's arrangement of Body and Soul and Carl Strommen's Give it Up. Goodwin's opener tested the trumpet section, not least trumpeter Euan O'Connell, Strommen's closing chart featured tenor saxophonist Freddie Hagen, but it was Ewan Reid's superb alto sax reading of Body and Soul which deservedly won huge applause. 

The adjudicators Mick Donnelly and Marcus Brown reached agreement on the 2022 GNBBJF winners. Festival director Bill Watson read out the results as follows: 

Adjudicators' award: Bass trombone/tuba player (Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band)
Adjudicators' award: Peter Abeyawardene, trumpet solo Backrow Politics (St Aidan's Swing Band)
Adjudicators' award: Bass player, Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band 

Best Programme: Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band

Best Section: Trumpet Section, St Aidan's Swing Band

Best Soloist: Ewan Reid, alto sax Body and Soul (St Aidan's Swing Band) 

Best Band: Haberdashers' Abraham Darby Jazz Band

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