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Bebop Spoken There

Steve Fishwick: “I can’t get behind the attitude that new is always somehow better than old” - Jazz Journal, April 15, 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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sat 02: Paula Jackman's Jazz Masters @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 02: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 02: Abbie Finn Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm.
Sat 02: Tenement Jazz Band @ John Marley Centre, Newcastle. Swing Tyne Winter Social. £8.00. + bf. Advance purchase only, no admission at the door. BYOB. Lindy hop workshop from 11:00am. £39.00.
Sat 02: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Masham, Hartburn Village, Stockton. 7:00pm. Feat. Noel Dennis.
Sat 02: Classic Swing @ The Nuthatch, 9 - 11 Bedford St, Middlesbrough TS1 2LL. 7:00-9:00pm. Classic Swing in trio format.
Sat 02: Paul Skerritt w. Danny Miller Big Band @ Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm.
Sat 02: Vermont Big Band @ Whitley Bay FC. 7:30pm. £10.00. (inc. hot buffet). Tickets available from WBFC’s Seahorse pub club house.
Sat 02: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Ponteland Social Club, Northumberland. 7:30pm. £18.00 (inc. stotties & soup supper). A fundraiser for Hexham Constituency Labour Party.
Sat 02: Durham Dynamics & Basement Jazz @ Kingsgate Bar & Café, Durham Students’ Union. 7:30pm. £5.00. (£4.50. concs.). ‘Fab & Festive’. A cappella & jazz. Abba, Mariah Carey & more.
Sat 02: Tom Remon & Laurence Harrison @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. Xmas party night inc. buffet & special raffle. £3.00.
Sat 02: Groovetrain @ The Unionist Club, Laygate, South Shields. 9:00pm.

Sun 03: The Central Bar Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. The Central Bar Quartet plays Lou Donaldson’s Gravy Train. Featuring Jamie Toms.
Sun 03: Paul Skerritt @ Smith’s Arms, Carlton, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:00pm.
Sun 03: Johnny Hunter Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 03: Jam session @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.

Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 04: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ People’s Kitchen, Bath Lane, Newcastle. From 5:30pm. On-street gig supporting the work of the People’s Kitchen charity. Wrap up warm! Donate!
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio w Lindsay Hannon @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Mon 04: Durham University Jazz Orchestra + Durham University Big Band @ Durham Castle DH1 3RW. 8:30pm. £6.00.; £5.00. concs; £4.00. DSM. ‘Jazzy Christmas’.

Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ All Saints Church, Cleadon. 7:00pm. Concert in the church hall. BYOB.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Sid White. The best free show in town!

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Free. Note later start time, concert performance (open to the public).
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay, Newcastle. 12 noon - 4:00pm. £26.00 (inc 3-course meal in in St Mary's Lighthouse Suite). SOLD OUT!
Thu 07: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 07: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.Donations. Feat. Mark Sanders.
Thu 07: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00. Downstairs.
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Woodland Village Hall, Bishop Auckland. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Fri 08: Sleep Suppressor + Redwell @ Head of Steam, Neville St., Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv); £5.00. student.
Fri 08: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert's Church, Shadforth, Co. Durham.
Fri 08: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £8.00.

Saturday, May 14, 2022

Hexham Jazz Festival: Day 1 (Friday 13)

(© Malcolm Sinclair)
On the approach to Hexham Abbey the streets were eerily quiet. Could there really be a major festival event about to begin in the Northumberland market town? There was and it's pleasing to report the first Hexham Jazz Festival in something like twenty years got off to a flying start as a capacity audience took its seats - in some cases pews! - to hear Hot Club du Nord and the improvisational duo of Paul Edis and Graeme Wilson.  

Hot Club du Nord: Emma Fisk (violin); James Birkett (guitar); Dave Harris (guitar); Bruce Rollo (double bass)

(© Malcolm Sinclair)
Emma Fisk's Hot Club du Nord is a 'banker bet'. Book the band and you're guaranteed  a full house. The festival organisers did just that and were duly rewarded. The acoustics in Hexham Abbey favoured Emma Fisk's virtuosic violin playing, the guitarists - James Birkett and Dave Harris - less so, although the master craftsmen overcame any potential difficulties playing the set with little or no amplification, likewise string bassist Bruce Rollo. This Can't Be Love opened the 2022 Hexham Jazz Festival and if it's possible to hear a pin drop in such a vast space we would have heard it, such was the attentive listening of the capacity crowd. 

Django and Stéphane were to the fore, both pre-war and post-war recordings. Swing 42 is a favourite of Hot Club du Nord, it went down well here in Hexham. Fats Waller's Honeysuckle Rose is a winner every time: the aficionado approves, to the the non-aficionado, it's a foot-tapper. Fisk's playing of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square is never less than perfect - you don't need to be a GASbook jazz fan, anyone with ears can't fail to be impressed. Magical. To close an all-to-brief set, Hot Club du Nord went out on Stompin' at Decca.
         
Set list: This Can't Be Love; Body and Soul; Swing 42; Undecided; Besame Mucho; Ultrafox; Honeysuckle Rose; A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square; Stompin' at Decca.   
 
Paul Edis (pipe organ); Graeme Wilson (tenor sax)
     
(© Malcolm Sinclair)
Following a short interval we were to hear a set of improvised music performed by Paul Edis and Graeme Wilson. The phrase 'And now for something completely different' sprang to mind. As Edis made his way up into the organ loft, tenor saxophonist Graeme Wilson patrolled the aisles. Our duo gave a first performance of pipe organ and tenor sax at Durham Cathedral and this Hexham reunion would similarly make full use of the ancient building's (challenging) acoustics. London-based Edis cranked-up the organ, its immense power held in check, for now...

(© Malcolm Sinclair)
Edinburgh-based Wilson took a similar approach, first probing, tentatively, hearing the echo, playing with the acoustics. A pipe organ doesn't have to be all about thunderous sounds, it can emit whispered notes, Edis sketching on a broad canvas, not yet puling out all of the stops. Wilson responded, full-throttle tenor held in reserve. This first of two improvisations ebbed and flowed, fire and brimstone passages emerged only to be calmed once more. Some forty five minutes later Edis emerged from on high, taking a bow, the more visible Wilson acknowledging the applause. Here endeth day one of the 2022 Hexham Jazz Festival. Russell   
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