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Bebop Spoken There

Béla Fleck: “ And that's the great thing about live performances, you take people on a journey. It doesn't have to be like something else they've heard. It's not supposed to be". DownBeat, April, 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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm.
Thu 28: Richard Herdman Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Guests: Josh Bentham (alto sax); Alan Marshall (tenor sax); Neil Brodie (trumpet); Adrian Beadnell (bass); Graham Thompson (keys); Steve Hunter (drums).

Fri 29: FILM: Soul @ The Forum Cinema, Hexham. 12:30pm. Jazz-themed film animation.
Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free. POSTPONED!
Fri 29: Thundercat @ Newcastle City Hall.
Fri 29: John Logan @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 30: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 30: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Whitley Bay Library, York Road, Whitley Bay. 8:00pm.

Sun 31: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 31: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields NE30 1HJ. 3:00pm. Free. Lambert, Alan Law & Paul Grainger.
Sun 31: Sid Jacobs & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. USA/London jazz guitar duo.
Sun 31: Bellavana @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

April
Mon 01: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 01: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.

Tue 02: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Dean Stockdale, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 03: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 03: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 03: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Chris Sharkey Trio Minus 1 @ Jazz Café - March 7

Chris Sharkey (guitar); Andy Champion (bass)
(Review by Steve T)
Being a self-confessed philistine when it comes to piano-less duos and percussion-less bands (sans Gypsy), I'd have likely given this a miss had I known they hadn't managed to raise a drummer for the second of their fortnightly residency. Big mistake.
Last week at the Caff, Alex Munk of Flying Machines cited Sharkey as one of his current guitar heroes, and I'd heard him with ACV Mk 2 and the World Service Project but hadn't quite realised just exactly how fine a guitarist he is.
Song for my Father, renamed Song for my Mother for International Women’s Day, had Sharkey getting loads of notes without ever losing the sense of the melody. The absence of a drummer can isolate a bass solo in particular, but AC is a monster practitioner and some fantastic comping from Sharkey, subtle and un-intrusive, meant it never became boring.
The bass intro could only be Night in Tunisia, and I realised how seldom we hear this Dizzy masterpiece. In contrast, Night and Day is a perennial these days, here taken at a whimsical pace and the interplay between these two old friends belying their telepathy.
Stella by Starlight into the break.
The Caff was comfortably full and lost maybe a table's worth during the interval which isn't half bad for such a free and unpredictable set of difficult music. Andy stayed on upright throughout with Sharkey using a Tele and something a little less solid which, he being a southpaw and to the right of Andy, I couldn't get a good look at.
Something I didn't know, something by Monk, Autumn Leaves and Isotope from Joe Henderson rocking it up and funking it up, both getting some unlikely sounds using different parts and functions of their respective instruments percussively.
In further celebration of Women’s Day, Sharkey proposed a singalong to finish. This won't go well I thoughtbut it did and grown men and women, myself included, joined in a rousing finale more akin to an imbibed evening with a pop/rock covers band or a local folkey. Ivor Cutler from 1969 and something about women of the world taking over or, in the words of Private Frasier, we're all doomed. 
I had a chat with the lovely new barmaid and asked who will make all the weapons and do all the killing when they discover how to keep the population going without men. We agreed they could keep us as pets, lying around like Tomcats.
Steve T.

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