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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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

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.

Sunday, May 15, 2022

Hexham Jazz Festival: Day 2 (Saturday 14, afternoon)

The reborn Hexham Jazz Festival had been long in the planning. Pre-pandemic, discussions were had, musicians sounded out, it was all ready to go, then, bang!, lockdown. Now, more than two years on, the weather gods saw to it that the sun shone, and shone, and shone on the Saturday afternoon outdoor stage. Divine intervention? Well, we were in the grounds of Hexham Abbey...

A scratch quartet, for the occasion going under the name of the Core Music Jazz Quartet*, entertained a deck chair crowd on an ever-so green lawn. Opening with Sam Rivers' Beatrice, the degree of talent on show was quite something: Ferg Kilsby (trumpet), all of sixteen/seventeen, played as if a thirty-something pro, guitarist Joe Steels (guitar), Paul Susans (double bass) and drummer John Hirst. Monk's Ugly Beauty (Kilsby's choice) tested the quartet, our young trumpeter not in the least fazed by the chart. Paul Susans' ballad Gamblin Man, written in memory of the sadly missed guitarist Paul Gamblin, evoked memories, a poignant moment. Guitarist Steels' Remerge, written pre-pandemic, seemed rather apposite, living, as we do, in strange times. And to close a most enjoyable set, Dave Hignett joined the quartet for a two-trumpet blowout on an excellent farewell blues with John Hirst reminding us just how good he was and is. Let's hope we hear more of him in the coming weeks and months.  

The sun continued to shine as Hexham's pride and joy, the Tyne Valley Big Band,  assembled on the stage/lawn. And the TVBB really is a big, big band - all twenty three of them plus a powerhouse vocalist. MD Dave Hignett likes to give everyone in the ensemble their moment in the spotlight and during a fast-paced set the sections and their soloists took a metaphorical bow. A set chock full of big band staples - Hayburner to Sing, Sang, Sung - plus two or three vocal numbers for Barbra Hignett (Mack the KnifeSway and an emphatic New York, New York), you can't be having anything other than a good time if you're listening to the Tyne Valley Big Band.

Core Music is Hexham's CIC music development agency, take a look at the organisation's website: www.coremusicshop.co.uk. Russell      

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