Total Pageviews

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.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Sonny Simmons Quartet @ The Bridge Hotel, Newcastle.

Sonny Simmons (alt/cor anglais), Derek Saw (tpt/valve tmb), John Janosch (gtr/oud), Charlie Collins (dms).
What's this? An oud? A cor anglais? "Cor blimey!" I hear myself mutter.
The room fills up and the Jazz North East gang breath a sigh of relief as extra seats have to be brought in.
On stage, Simmons, born Louisiana raised in Oakland Cal, picks up the cor, Janosch, perhaps Sheffield's number one oudist, places the lute-like instrument across his knee and the severely be-whiskered Collins takes up a southpaw stance behind the double snare-drummed kit.
Saw, trilby clad and looking like a hustler in a Brooklyn pool-room circa 1947, sways rhythmically whilst the others meander musically.
The exercise draws to a close and Simmons says "Yo" to the audience.
I yawn.
Sonny picks up the alto, Derek the trumpet, John the Telecaster and Charlie strokes his plentiful beard.
This is more like it - no more ouding, cor anglais or yawning tonight.
I think back to the early days of Ornette Coleman - "Tomorrow is the Question"
Simmons supplies the answer.
Blistering alto - fuller sound than Ornette - Sonny blows the changes out of the window and Derek does the same - the trumpet may be brass but the timbre is Sheffield Steel and I don't mean stainless. Don Cherry meets Harry James.
Sonny says "Yo".
Enter the ghost of Charlie Parker Past. The Gypsy. Sonny takes Billy Reid's tune on an unaccompanied walk around the block. Discovers some alleyways that even Bird missed. Lyrical, I'm impressed. In the second set he does the same with 'Round Midnight - I'm more impressed.
Sonny says "Yo".
Derek moving to and fro' trumpet to valve trombone - Roswell Rudd meets Roswell New Mexico launching improvised UFOs.
Sonny sings a chorus of It Was a Very Good Year (Yo?) Sinatra meets Tom Waits.
And then it's over. The audience screams for more but Sonny is already dissembling his horn.
Derek says, "When Sonny says it's over - it's over."
I'm not bothered the guys have opened up their skulls, laid bare their soul we've been privileged to see and hear one of the last of the near greats.
Yo Sonny.
Lance.

1 comment :

john moles said...

Interesting review, with which I largely agreed. Saw cuts a very amiable figure on stage and plays a sort of visual compere role which Simmons largely eschews. Chat with Saw in interval revealed that he agreed with proposition that Simmons plays in a jazzier idiom than the British band and regards him as having a beautiful sound and producing sometimes surprising licks and that 'the visiting big American' is what brings in the money for this band. When I suggested possible substitutes such as Arthur Blythe he demurred with 'don't like his sound', but approved Oliver Lake.

As last year, Simmons himself is clearly husbanding energies both on and off stage. Ideally speaking, he needs another horn as fiery and inventive as himself (I don't think Saw is really that) but who can also take the strain when Simmons is resting. There are Americans and Brits who fit the bill (more or less) but presumably economics prevents it.

Especially in ballads, Simmons' sound remains lovely - shades of Ornette, Coltrane, Jacky McLean, Booker Ervin, but with the plangent lyricism which has always been his trademark since the early 60s.

Blog Archive