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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 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!"

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

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. CANCELLED!
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.

Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Abbie Finn Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoe Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Funk Soul Sista @ Stack, Seaburn. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Beth Clarke @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Whittingham Memorial Institute, Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00., £10.00.
Sun 10: Tele-Port @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Zhenya Strigalev.

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Album review: Buselli/Wallarab Jazz Orchestra - The Gennett Suite

Brent Wallarab (arr./conductor); Greg Ward (sop/alto sax); Amanda Gardier (alto sax); Tom Walsh (tenor sax/flute); Todd Williams (tenor sax); Ned Boyd (bari sax); Clark Hunt, Jeff Conrad, Scott Belck, Mark Buselli, John Raymond, Jeff Parker (trumpets); Tim Coffman, Andrew Danforth, Demondrae Thurman, Rich Dole (trombones); Luke Gillespie (piano); Jeremy Allen (bass); Sean Dobbins (drums)

Will there be a better big band (double) album this year? I have my doubts unless it's a reissue consisting of a couple of Basie and Ellington long players and, even then ...

This is simply magnificent! Don't be fooled by the title and think that this is merely some kind of a Pasadena Roof Orchestra or a Midnite Follies' reincarnation of the past, good as those bands are/were. It isn't and yet it would be if we were able to move the past one hundred years forward!

Wallarab's vision is to celebrate the Gennett recording studio where, in Richmond, Indiana, many of the first great jazz recordings were made by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Louis Armstrong, Hoagland 'Hoagy' Carmichael, Bix Beiderbecke and Jelly Roll Morton to mention but a few.

It's a band that swings as good as any big band from Goldkette to Schneider and those in between.

It's ancient, it's modern, it's yesterday, it's tomorrow as well as the day after tomorrow. The soloists pay tribute whilst retaining their own identity.

There are too many highlights to signal out every soloist and there is only one 'low point' which is, in itself, a high point - I refer to Jeremy Allen's bass feature, Interlude, during which he manages to incorporate the bass intro to All Blues.

Nevertheless, It would be churlish of me not to mention Greg Ward's sumptuous take on Stardust or Luke Gillespie's piano solos where, at times, his left hand is in the past and his right hand is looking to next Tuesday (and sometimes vice-versa!)

Co-leader Buselli and Belck alternate between trumpet and flugel. I could go on and on extolling every one from the person who made the intermission coffee (a change from those original Gennett intermissions!) to all the players and, not least to Brent Wallarab whose arrangements and concept of this project put him up there with - well you name it - anyone.

There are four movements, each relating to a specific band/artist and all are done with respect to the originals but very much for today. 

As a further incentive to get your paws on this doubler, the essays in the booklet are  themselves masterpieces.

VIDEO

Wonderful. Lance

Available June 9 (sadly not on Gennett who shut up shop in 1947/48) on Patois Records.

Movement 1 (Royal Blue): Tin Roof Blues (in two parts); Chimes Blues; Dippermouth Blues.

Movement 2 (Blues Faux Bix): Davenport Blues; Jazz Me Blues; Interlude; Wolverine Blues.

Movement 3 (Hoagland): Stardust; Riverboat Shuffle (in two parts).

Movement 4 (Mr Jelly Lord): King Porter Stomp; Grandpa's Spells.

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