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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

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.

Sat 08: Me Lost Me + Ceitidh Mac + Heather Ferrier @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 7:30pm. JNE.
Sat 08: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED from last week (Sat 01).
Sat 08: Robbie Reay @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Acoustic blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 08: Anth Purdy @ Mr Tighe's, Bebside, Northumberland. 8:30pm.

Friday, March 25, 2022

Why Bunny Berigan couldn't get started.

Listening to Jim McBriarty singing I Can't Get Started this afternoon at the Crescent Club got me to thinking about the lyrics. Don't get me wrong, It's one of Vernon Duke's  greatest tunes and Jim sang it well. I even have a couple of 78 rpm versions of it by Bunny Berigan. One of the all time classic recordings but, Ira Gershwin's lyric!

We're asked to believe that some chick declined the advances of a guy who'd flown around the world in an aeroplane (in 1937, long before there was a travel shop in every shopping mall). He'd also settled revolutions in Spain, in between shooting under par rounds of golf and being consulted by President F.D. Roosevelt. In his spare time Greta Garbo had 'had' him, he boasted, for tea and, maybe also for breakfast.

He made a killing when he sold short on the stock market and when, on his flight around the world, he refuelled at the then London Airport he was invited to wine and dine at Buck House. I'm not sure whether this latter event took place before or after he was charting the North Pole or when he popped into Hollywood to negotiate with Metro Goldwyn who saw him as the next Clark Gable but I can understand why he couldn't get started with the object of his affections - he was never there! Lance

8 comments :

Hil said...

My late husband Mike Gilby sang that to me many times. It was 'our' song. You see I never took him seriously. I met him 5 years earlier in Newcastle. He played in Jimmy Bences band when they worked on the QE2. I was then living in London and he used to ring me and ask would I go to Ronnie Scott's. We married a year later in 1971. We had 3 wonderful children.

JERRY said...

Gershwin states in the penultimate verse:

"Pet, you devastated me."
Was he a closet Geordie?

JERRY

Lance said...

Stars Fell on Alabama could also be Geordie related with Mitchell Parish's lyric rhyming glamour (glamma) and hammer (hamma) with Alabama.

Roly said...

When this song is mentioned I always think of local trumpeter Bobby Carr. It was his party piece (or one of them).

JERRY said...

I believe sharing a bed in their impoverished youth may have inspired Ira's Geordie classic: "Keep yer feet still Georgie, hinny"

Ann Alex said...

I think this song is one of the most amusing of jazz songs. It's obvious that the man is making up tall stories about himself and it also gives details about what Americans consider as important achievements.

jason60chev said...

Because she's so Supreme!

Wayne said...

That was my grandfather Bunny Berigan who played that tune. It was played at my brother's funeral.

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