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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 2024).

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...

Josh Weir: I love the writing on bebop spoken here... I think the work you are doing is amazing.

Postage

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Fri 13: Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Two pianos, two pianists! SOLD OUT!
Fri 13: Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Dilutey Juice @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.00. adv..
Fri 13: Ray Stubbs R & B All-stars @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Classic blues.

Sat 14: Jeff Barnhart’s Silent Film Fest @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 14: Customs House Big Band w. Ruth Lambert @ St Paul’s Centre, St Paul’s Gardens, Spennymoor DL16 7LR. 7:00pm (6:45pm doors). Tickets £10.00. from the venue or tel: 01388 813404. A ‘BYOB’ event.
Sat 14: Emma Wilson @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00. Acoustic blues.
Sat 14: Rat Pack - Swingin’ at the Sands @ Billingham Forum. 7:30pm.

Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Panharmonia @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Swing Manouche @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: John Hallam with the James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert!

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Tenement Jazz Band @ the Prohibition Bar - June 23

(© Russell)
Charles Dearness (trumpet); Paddy Darley (trombone); Steven Feast (clarinet); John Youngs (banjo, vocals); Rory Clark (sousaphone)

The first jazz book I ever read - or attempted to read (I don't think I've finished it yet although it is still up there on the shelf gathering dust and absorbing any damp that may seep in) was Rudi Blesh's Shining Trumpets - and I wondered if, as an impressionable youngster, whether I should follow the classical path of my parents or the popular music (it had yet to be abbreviated to 'pop') of my friends or go with my gut instinct.

 Jazz seemed so complicated

The matter was resolved when I read a second jazz book which is still up there on the shelf (damp free and dusted regularly). Leonard Feather's Inside Bebop. This was, maybe still is, the definitive work on modern jazz as it was back then.

However, Blesh's book, as overtly biased as it was/is provided one of the most beautiful words in jazz, be it then, now or next Tuesday - polyphony.

Polyphony is to jazz what a fugue is to a classical ensemble. The difference being that in jazz, whether trad or avant-garde, polyphony is totally improvised.

Polyphony was the first word that sprung to my mind when the Edinburgh based Tenement Jazz Band band stomped off with Bogalosa Strut

Bands often, by choice or necessity, work without a drummer yet these guys swing so hard that a drummer would be surplus to requirements.

Dearness, with his shoulder length hair, may not look like Bix but his lyrical turn of phrase  could have had Bix, like Christ (and to many he was Christ) rising from the dead and applauding the young man.

You don't see many steel clarinets on gigs these days but, when you do, make sure that Steven Feast is on the blowing end. Great sound, not 'pure' clarinet but close enough for me.

Paddy Darley blows trombone like Kid Ory. I'm told that he used to work behind the bar at the venue. It must have been like coming home. 

John Youngs sang a few numbers - maybe he should stick with the day job. However, as the 'day job' is playing the banjo perhaps, on their next visit he should bring his guitar along. (just joking John, you're the best banjoist I've heard since yesterday.)

Rory Clark provided a solid foundation stomping along on sousaphone with the agility of a piccolo player and holding it all together.

It was an excellent session, the joint was jumpin' and the dancers enjoyed the mix of standards, originals, rags and blues.

Blues!? You wanna get the blues? Let me tell ya you don't need to go to Chicago or some joint in Alabama to get the blues. Just try the Tyne & Wear Metro ...

Still, it was a great couple of sets and there was another to come. This is one of those bands that have got it absolutely right with what they do.

Oh and, yes, if you wanna dance ... Lance

Numbers included: Bogalosa Strut; Canal St. Blues; Snake Rag; In the Gloaming; You Can Depend on me; Kinklets; Big Chief Battleaxe; Barataria; Bouncing Around; Louisiana Fairy Tale; Blue Drag; Stockyard Strut; Willie the Weeper; Mississippi Rag; She's Crying For me; Kansas City Rag; Till we Meet Again 

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