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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.

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.

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