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Bebop Spoken There

Billy Boy Arnold: “As long as you don't think old you're good.” - DownBeat, December, 2023.

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...

Postage

16051 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1058 of them this year alone and, so far, 12 this month (Dec. 6).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sat 09: Prudhoe Community Band @ Central Station, Newcastle. 10:00am - 12 noon. Charity fundraiser.
Sat 09: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Skinnergate, Darlington. 1:00pm.
Sat 09: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 09: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Middleton & Todridge Village Hall, Morpeth. 7:30pm. £12.00., £6.00.
Sat 09: Paul Skerritt @ Slaley Hall, Hexham NE47 0BX. 7:30pm. From £42.00.

Sun 10: Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party with Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. MU 1:00-3:00pm; Zoë Gilby Quartet 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets: £7.50.
Sun 10: Alan Law, Paul Grainger & Abbie Finn @ Darlington Market, Market Square, Darlington. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘Christmas Market’ outdoor gig. Wrap up warm!
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Funk Soul Sista @ Stack, Seaburn. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Beth Clarke @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Whittingham Memorial Institute, Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00., £10.00.
Sun 10: Tele-Port @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Zhenya Strigalev.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Interim Final Recitals @ Newcastle University. Details TBC.

Tue 12: Stu Collingwood Organ Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £10.00.

Wed 13: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 13: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 13: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Wed 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Hot Fingers @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 14: After Hours Student Jazz Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. . Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 14: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Mo Scott ‘Little Mo’s Festive Appearance’ @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Tees Hot Club w. Kevin Eland, Josh Bentham, Garry Hadfield, Adrian Beadnell @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 15: Paul Edis @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 15: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 15: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: Paul Skerritt @ Black Horse Inn, Crook. From 7:00pm.
Fri 15: Paul Edis: A Jazzy Christmas @ St Cuhtbert's Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00. SOLD OUT! Waiting list open.
Fri 15: Zoë Gilby Trio @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £12.00. Fri 15: Strictly Smokin' Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. First night of two.
Fri 15: Darlington Big Band @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £10.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 15: Baghdaddies @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £14.00.; £10.00.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Gormon-sense

Apart from jazz one of my interests is American crime fiction. Chandler, Spillane, Jim Thompson are all favourites of mine. Another is Ed Gorman.
Yesterday I read a short story of his entitled "Muse".
It is loosely jazz orientated and includes the following truism:
"You've never heard Porter or Kern or Larry Hart until you've heard them done by great jazz singers and musicians. Then you'll find out just how rich their music really is."
This caught my fancy because it is so true. Many of the great standards began life in Broadway shows or Hollywood musicals where they were sung in the strident theatrical manner or in that quasi-operatic style so beloved of the Great White Way.
Listen to Ella's series of songbooks, Frank's or Mel Tormé's versions of the Gasbook and you have an art form so far removed and above the original it is sometimes difficult to reconcile the two.
On the instrumental side, musicians have extended the life of the composer's songs into immortality.
You'd think the composers would have been grateful for this expansion of their work. Far from it - they frequently sued. The estate of one famous composer has made a career out of it!
Even Cole Porter, whose canon many would say had been enhanced by Sinatra's interpretations, took offence, according to Larry Adler - a mouthorgan player - at 'Old Blue Eye's' rendition of "I Get a Kick Out of You".
I guess he didn't object to the royalties.
Lance.

1 comment :

Dave said...

In regard to the item's mention of litigating composers, many years ago I had a vinyl copy of Mark Murphy's "Rah" album on Riverside Records. Along with such jazz staples as "Milestones", "Li'l Darlin'", "Doodlin'", "Twisted" and others, he did a great rendition of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "My Favourite Things" from "The Sound Of Music", and like the above named selections, there were some special lyrics added to the original "Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens", etc. Mark's words concerned "Miles and Gil blowin', Mulligan swingin', the Hi-Los Hi-Lo-in'", ec. But my favourite couplet was "Memories of Billie, the soul and the heartache, sessions 'til daybreak in which I can partake, ol' Ernie Wilkins, he sure gives you wings, these are a few of my favourite things", etc.
The album got lost when I moved from Connecticut to California in '64, but I soon replaced it, only to find that the composers had threatened to sue Riverside, and forced the original album off the market, and my new copy had the offending lyrics excised! This was also around the time Riverside went bankrupt, and my copy was a reissue by Orpheum Productions.
I've now got this on CD, and that also is an edited version. Has anyone got a copy of the original album?? "Let's Make A Deal!!"
Dave (Dave the Rave)
TAKE IT TO THE BRIDGE

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