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Bebop Spoken There

Ambrose Akinmusire: “ I am certainly always aware of what the masses are doing. And when I see too many people going one way, I'm going another way - even when I don't know what's over that way". DownBeat, March, 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

Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Castillo Neuvo Trio + Conor Emery & His ‘Bones Band @ The Grove, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00. (£7.00. student).
Thu 21: Remi Banklyn + Chris Corcoran Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.50. Chicago blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime piano.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Nauta + Remy CB + Last Orders @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). Free.
Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 22: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 23: Jambone @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:30pm. Free (ticketed). End of term performance in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 23: Red Kites Jazz @ Rowlands Gill Community Centre NE39 1JB. 7:00pm. Tickets: £12.00. (gibsidecommunityfarm@gmail.com). A ‘Build a Barn’ fundraiser. BYOB, tea/coffee available.
Sat 23: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00. + bf (book in person at venue - no booking fee!). Featuring pianist Martin Litton.
Sat 23: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 24: Luis Verde @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Verde (alto sax); Joe Steels (guitar); John Pope (double bass); John Hirst (drums). Alto sax brilliance!
Sun 24: Elsie Franklin @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Country blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Sun 24: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Las Vegas Live with the Rat Pack @ The Forum, Billingham.
Sun 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Otterburn Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sun 24: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Note start time - 7:00pm.
Sun 24: Bold Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Monday, July 17, 2017

Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert: Jambone & Quay Voices with Zoë Gilby, Matt Anderson & Colette Serrechia @ Sage Gateshead - July 16

(Review by Russell)
This Young Musicians’ Programme concert, the second of two performances, presented the music of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts in Sage One, Sage Gateshead’s magnificent, 1700 seats, state of the art concert hall. The project had been long in the making with frequent rehearsals over many months. A successful first performance took place on Saturday afternoon at Ushaw, Durham (photo by Kate Edis), in the splendour of the former seminary’s chapel, and this Sunday evening concert concluded a weekend of music making under the aegis of the Young Musicians’ Programme (YMP).
Paul Edis and Matt Beckingham tutored respectively Jambone and Quay Voices (Jambone is Sage Gateshead’s youth jazz orchestra, Quay Voices the youth choir) throughout the 2016-17 academic year, culminating in this weekend of memorable public performances. Featured guests worked with Edis and Beckingham throughout the year and their participation in the project should, perhaps, be viewed as a contribution of equal, rather than superior, value to orchestra and choir.
Dr Edis conducted the assembly with Beckingham taking a seat in the auditorium alongside a Sage Gateshead audience of family, friends, supporters and music lovers. This concert of Ellington’s late career work was the John Høybye/Peder Pedersen version dating from the 1990s. The twenty-five strong choir, dressed in black, assembled behind the seventeen piece jazz orchestra, with vocalist Zoë Gilby taking a seat to the right of pianist Phillip Grobe, and saxophonist Matt Anderson taking his place in the reeds’ section flanked by Nicholas Caughey and Ella Talbot. Praise God began the one-hour performance featuring the collective power of Jambone and Quay Voices. The acoustics in Sage One are renowned the world over and it is on an occasion such as this that the listener is able to appreciate that the cost of Norman Foster’s iconic building was, and is, money well spent.
Local superstar, Ms Zoë Gilby, rose to sing her first part; Heaven heard Gilby projecting effortlessly, the choir – none of whom were on a mic – could similarly be heard without difficulty.

Ellington’s Freedom suite comprising of seven parts introduced Matt Anderson. The Leeds College of Music graduate is primarily known as a tenor saxophonist but on this occasion, he played alto as much as tenor. Jimmy Hamilton or Russell Procope or Paul Gonsalves, Anderson played brilliantly under the baton of Edis. Gilby sang and Gilby gave the recitation Freedom is a word. In Sage One on the night, or at Ushaw the previous day, was there a member of the audience who attended one of the original Ellington concert performances?

Several of Jambone’s musicians are busy gigging musicians. No fewer than six of them played at Matt MacKellar’s jazz party on Thursday evening of last week and here they were taking on Duke Ellington! Trumpeters James Metcalf and Ben Lawrence were Cat Anderson and Cootie Williams. Or was it the other way round? Which ever, James and Ben met the challenge head on; exposed trumpet parts are surely trepidatious for the more experienced performer, yet the Jamboners gave it their best shot and hit the bullseye! Pianist Paul Edis must have been especially proud of Phillip Grobe’s mature performance at the Steinway grand. And the engine room boys…Matthew Downey playing guitar (a guitarist who gets the volume levels right!), Alex Shipsey, as steady a bass player as you’ll find, and the pocket dynamo himself, drummer Dylan Thompson, reading the dots, an eye on conductor Edis, and, seemingly, time to enjoy the whole thing. When your correspondent forms his first jazz combo DT will be ‘first call’ for the drum chair!

To complete this performance of Ellington’s Sacred Concert music Stockton on Tees-born Colette Serrechia joined Jambone and Quay Voices to contribute tap dance routines. A tap board set up at the front of the stage enabled all to watch Serrechia as she became another voice in the ensemble. David danced before the Lord and the closing section Praise God and Dance – Finale featured the terpsichorean talents of Serrechia, soaring Quay Voices and a cookin’ Jambone. The evening had been quite an occasion.      
Russell                                            
Zoë Gilby (vocals), Matt Anderson (alto & tenor saxophones), Colette Serrechia (tap dance)
Jambone: director: Paul Edis; saxophone: Nicholas Caughey, Ryan De Silva, Haaruun Miller, Ella Talbot; flute: Megan Robinson, Imogen Davies-Pugh; trumpet: James Metcalf, Ben Lawrence, Lucien Guest, Callum Mellis; trombone: Darcy Whyatt, Kate Garnett, Fabio Sousa; piano: Phillip Grobe; guitar: Matthew Downey; bass: Alex Shipsey; drums Dylan Thompson
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Quay Voices: director: Matt Beckingham; Jess Batey, Matthew Balme, Lindsay Booth, Zoé Buckthrop, Lucy Che, Peter Chisholm, Matthew Coe, Jasmine Colgan, Seth Collin, Esme Collin, Daniel Filipe, Charlotte Galloway, Laura Hewitson, Amy Langdown, Alistair McCubbin, Emily McDermott, James Petherick, Sarah Petherick, Faye Robinson, Elise Shields, Saffron Sims-Brydon, Frances Sutton, Rosa Thomas, Callum Ward, Jake Watson

1 comment :

Steve T said...

Despite being a serious Duke man, I've never bothered with his sacred concerts, presumably for the same reason that, despite being the most thorough of thorough soul fans, I've barely touched upon gospel.
Nevertheless, I can't for the life of me think why it was about a quarter to a third full, and why anybody would not go to watch this in a splendid chapel in a splendid building just outside Durham, and I include family, friends and acquaintances in that.
As I keep saying, we accept the post-truth, fake news and alternative facts of the media and educators, more interested in Brian Wilson than Duke Ellington, at our peril.
It was Jambone at their best, and special mentions concurred for trumpeters James and Ben: Matt, Zoe, Quay Voices and, as a conductor sceptic, Lord Paul; and the tap dancing was a masterstroke.

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