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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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!"

Postage

15229 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 248 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (March 20).

From This Moment On ...

March

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Traveller's Rest, Cockerton. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public). Note change of venue - CANCELLED CEILING COLLAPSED!
Wed 22: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Thu 23: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Bar Loco, Newcasatle. From 6:30pm 'til late. Free. Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra jam session. All welcome (students & non-students).
Thu 23: Kerrin Tatman + John Garner & John Pope @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 23: Sunna Gunnlaugs & Julia Hülsmann @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm. A two-piano gig. A Sage Gateshead-JNE promotion.
Thu 23: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano.
Thu 23: Sleep Suppressor @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00., £8.00. adv. Upstairs.
Thu 23: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: FILM: Mo' Better Blues @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Fri 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Scarth Hall, Staindrop, Co. Durham. 8:00pm. £10.00.
Fri 24: Archipelago + Bulbils @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 25: Vermont Big Band @ Walker Community Centre, Walker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Fundraiser for Benfield Juniours Football Club. Hot food available, BYOB.
Sat 25: John Logan & Friends @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rat Pack, Motown etc. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Memories of Chris by Ann Alex

I just have to tell blog readers about one of my favourite memories of Chris Yates. I was a student of his Jazz Appreciation classes at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, from about 2008. He was an absolutely great tutor and a lovely man, as I’m sure many blog readers already know. He was very patient with me, as a beginner in Jazz. Anyway, one day he was talking to us about the Great American Songbook (GASBOOK, as Lance calls it!). I was somewhat puzzled about this, so I asked Chris, with an innocent smile on my little face,
‘Chris, can I get the Great American Songbook out of the library?’
He must have wanted to laugh out loud, but good tutors can’t do that, especially not with adult students. He gently explained what the term really meant, that it was a concept rather than an actual book, although the components of the GASBOOK must be contained in many books, on sheet music and on CD and even on old fashioned tapes and cylinders.
Which leads me to speculate about what is to be included In the Great American Songbook. This blog is meant to be for real live discussions, so I’d love to start a debate about what the GASBOOK really is. Everyone knows about the jazz standards which are part of the GASBOOK, but could you perhaps include more recent compositions, say the songs of Bob Dylan; Randy Newman; or Burt Bacharach, and if not, then why not?
Ann Alex

7 comments :

Lance said...

This is one of those 'eyes (or in this case ears)of the beholder' situations.
The general consensus is that it applies to songs written post World War 1 to 1960 or perhaps the advent of Rock and Roll. However, this would eliminate composers such as Stephen Sondheim whose work certainly belongs there.
Also, I don't think the composers have to be exclusively birth Americans. Ray Noble was British and few would deny The Very Thought of You entry to its pages.
On a lighter note - if the Gasbook had been available from the library you'd have had to hire a Pickfords truck to get it home!

Roly said...

An interesting topic. A subjective thing I think. To me its a personal and perhaps idiomatic choice. Some more recent songs (by Dave Frishberg for one example) are Gasbook material but other songs (eg. LLoyd Webber) just don't seem to meet the rather vague, nebulous criteria - whatever these vague, nebulous criteria be.
Hmmm - this is no help whatever - is it?
Roly

Roly said...

I've thought a bit more about this.
I think it embodies all songs (generally with English/American lyrics) which have a reasonable level of popularity and which reasonable numbers of jazz musicians and jazz singers are (or have been) attracted to for performance material.
Roly

George Milburn said...

I think the GASBook should remain as defined for the sake of convenience. i.e. great songs, generally in English, of the jazz era 20's to 60's. There's so much subjectivity and hyperbole in music that having map references which mean something is a help, especially for strangers to the terrain.
I agree, with Lance that Sondheim's work is great, isn't it! with Ann's election of Randy Newman & Dylan and Roly's comments on Dave Frishberg, not to mention the great Tom Waits, but including them under a label from a different era is in my opinion folly. A bit like saying that the Vikings were really sophisticated enough to be included in the period of the Roman Occupation. I like the Vikings obviously but what did the Romans ever do for us?!
Tom Jobim wrote in Portuguese but surely he must be in the GASbook?!

Unknown said...

This is the way I see it. The Great American Songbook is a term for describing a collection of songs written between 1920 and 1960ish that have become standard repertoire for jazz singers.

Contemporary jazz singers often include more modern material in their repertoire, notably Lennon/McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, but these should not be considered part of The Great American Songbook. To do so would undermine its usefulness as a definition.

However, I think you could say that songs such as Yesterday, River or I Will Always Love You are becoming standards.

Russell said...

Roly's suggestion that 'nebulous criteria' define the Gasbook is a good one. Keep it as it is. It is a bit like the old line 'If you have to ask what jazz is...' We shouldn't admit any old song writer (and certainly no young ones!). George's observation about Jobim is well made. He's in there for me, after all Sinatra helped put him there!

Russell

Ann Alex said...

I'm very pleased that the topic I started has given rise to a useful discussion. Thank you everyone. I've come to the conclusion that the GASbook is probably best defined as English and American songs of the period 1920-60. However that doesn't mean that Jazz singers always have to stick to GASbook material in their performances. And as Lance once said to me, GASbook songs have a certain universal quality and are often not identified with any particular singer, or even with their composer sometimes. As a sometime singer I think I'd draw the line at LLoyd Webber, mind!

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