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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 17, 2023

Gaz Hughes Trio @ the Lit & Phil - March 17

(© Patti Durham)
Gaz Hughes (drums); Andrzej Baranek (piano); Ed Harrison (bass).

Three linchpins of the UK's north west jazz scene made an eagerly anticipated trans-Pennine trip as part of their promotional tour promoting their recently released album Beboptical Illusion, the follow up album to Beboperation. Hughes asked for suggestions for the title of the next album and, not without a degree of self interest, Conversational Bebop crossed my mind! 

Drummer, leader, composer Hughes has previous north east form having appeared as part of Dean Stockdale's trio, here, last year and, a couple of years earlier at Gosforth Civic Theatre where his sextet took the music of Art Blakey to a new dimension.

Like the other two members of the trio at this sold-out (again!) concert, Hughes is often mentioned in dispatches by 'Our Man in Stockport' and deservedly so.

This was as tight a trio as I've heard in many long years of listening to tight trios.

Much of the music was from the Beboptical Illusion album and, not surprisingly, given the title, there was a lot of updated bebop in the writing and the solos.

Hughes is Blakey, Roach and Clarke (drum) rolled into one with a touch of Elvin and Tony Williams and a whole lot of Gaz in the mix.

Harrison provides much more than the central pulse, although he does that to perfection, but he also solos and offers alternative lines with a sound as sonorous/resonant  as I've heard from any bass player in recent years.

Baranek (pictured), as the man at the melodic face handles the leader's compositions to the manner born and, without a crotchet or a quaver in sight! He's as modern as they come without losing direction and his arrangement of Body and Soul could have been subtitled Art Tatum Meets Bud Powell Meets Andrzej Baranek.

The crowd were ecstatic and I suspect it was only the ageing limbs of some that prevented a standing ovation!

Tonight they play a two set gig at Opus 4 in Darlo. Those who make the trek to the Traveller's Rest are in for a treat. Lance

Concorde; Seven Steps to Heaven; Edith; Body and Soul; the Message; Beboptical Illusion; To the Moon and Back; Lullaby of Birdland.

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