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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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
The 10: Classic Swing @ Carlisle Rugby Club, Warwick Rd., Carlisle. 8:30pm. £9.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: The Jazz Quartet + Stratosphonic @ Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £15.00. A Rotary Club of Hexham event. The Jazz Quartet (Jude Murphy & co), Stratosphonic (blues/rock). CANCELLED!
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 11: Mo Scott Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 12: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Michael Woods @ Victoria Tunnel, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv.). Country blues guitar & vocals.
Sat 12: Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.28, £11.16, £9.04. A two-track recording launch gig.
Sat 12: Stuart Turner @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rockabilly, rhythm & blues etc. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 12: Lapwing Jazz Trio @ The Ship Inn, Low Newton. 8:00pm. Free. New trio: Paula Whitty, Richard Herdman, Jude Murphy.

Sun 13: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Emma Wilson @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 13: Catfish Keith @ The Cluny. 7:00pm. Country blues.
Sun 13: Cath Stephens & Paul Grainger @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Stephens & Grainger, one third of a triple bill.
Sun 13: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 14: Black is the Color of My Voice @ Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by Nina Simone, performed by Nicholle Cherrie.

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano), Paul Grainger (double bass), Bailey Rudd (drums).

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Friday, March 15, 2024

1950s jazz in north west Lancashire

As teenagers, back in the 1950s, we moved seamlessly from the rock and roll era to jazz. That’s modern jazz by the way, not the raucous trad jazz, as in When the Saints go Marching in.

In north west Lancashire we were truly fortunate to have talented jazz singers and musicians playing on our doorsteps at the Empress and Imperial Ballrooms in Burnley and Nelson, every week. 

Saxophonist Johnny Dankworth, Musician of the Year in 1949 (later Sir John Dankworth) frequented Nelson regularly, as did Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes. Scott, of course, opened his own jazz club in Soho in the 1950s.  It still hosts the cream of musicians and singers to this day.

I always preferred trios and quartets with their more understated and cool presentations, but sadly the highly-acclaimed American Dave Brubeck Quartet, with Paul Desmond on alto sax, never made it to Nelson, and nor did the studious MJQ foursome who created a haunting piece as the theme tune for Odds Against Tomorrow starring Scary Spice’s former father-in-law Harry Belafonte, the sex symbol Shelley Winters and every man’s crumpet Gloria Grahame (played by Warren Beatty’s wife Annette Bening in the film Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool).

But these days I can almost dine out on the most overwhelming event ever.  My future first husband and I saw Ella Fitzgerald at Manchester Free Trade Hall for the first time in 1958. I got rid of my husband eventually but I kept the souvenir programme of the concert.

We were beside ourselves with excitement, because not only were we anticipating the most famous jazz singer on earth, but also the cream of jazz musicians too. 

Finally the band struck up and Ella landed on the stage carrying that trademark silk hanky she always used to mop the sweat from her brow.  She lit up the room as she took hold of the microphone and vigorously belted out The Lady is a Tramp. We were instantly besotted and overwhelmed, and later on her scat singing had us worshipping her unique skills.

During the evening we were entertained by the then revolutionary tenor sax players Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins, alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt, the Dill Jones Trio, Coleman Hawkins, playing his classic Body and Soul, Roy Eldridge, Lou Levy, Gus Johnson and the adored  jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gilllespie.

One surprise for me was when bassist Ray Brown left the stage when Ella came on to sing with Oscar Peterson’s backing.  I had no idea she and Brown had been married not many years before.

Apart from Ella and Stan Getz, my favourite performance that night was the inimitable Oscar Peterson, already popular on both sides of the Atlantic and the backbone of Jazz at the Phil.  Apparently he and Nat King Cole had identical voices, and while Nat often accompanied himself on piano, he didn’t perform solely as a pianist because Nat had agreed to stick to being a vocalist and Oscar to playing the ivories. Maggie B. Dickinson

1 comment :

Lance said...

I too attended a concert on JATP's 1958 tour albeit not at Manchester but at Newcastle's City Hall. This was om May 7, ten days before the Manchester concert.
Like yourself I still have the programme and the list of the tunes that I recognised, there were others:
Dill Jones Trio with Dave Shepherd - Lady be Good.
Coleman Hawkins - Indian Summer
Roy Eldridge - It's the Talk of the Town
Dizzy Gillespie - Laura
Stan Getz - Lover Come Back to me
Oscar Peterson - C Jam Blues; The Golden Striker
Ella Fitzgerald - Too Close For Comfort; Midnight Sun; Lady is a Tramp; Just One of Those Things; St Louis Blues; Caravan.
Yes it was quite a night although, as I remember it Getz had a lot of reed problems and for me Sonny Stitt was the sax star.

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