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Bebop Spoken There

Charles McPherson: “Jazz is best heard in intimate places”. (DownBeat, July, 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

16611 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 1504 of them this year alone and, so far, 50 this month (July 23).

From This Moment On ...

July

Sat 27: BBC Proms: BBC Introducing stage @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 12 noon. Free. Line-up inc. Nu Groove (2:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (2:50pm); Dilutey Juice (3:50pm); SwanNek (5:00pm); Rivkala (6:00pm).
Sat 27: Nomade Swing Trio @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sat 27: Mississippi Dreamboats @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 27: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Cafédral, Owengate, Durham. 9:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.
Sat 27: Theon Cross + Knats @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 10:00pm. £22.00. BBC Proms: BBC Introducing Stage (Sage Two). A late night gig.

Sun 28: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm.
Sun 28: Miss Jean & the Ragtime Rewind Swing Band @ Fonteyn Ballroom, Dunelm House (Durham Students’ Union), Durham. 2:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.
Sun 28: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Nomade Swing Trio @ Red Lion, Alnmouth. 4:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 28: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 28: Milne Glendinning Band @ Cafédral, Owengate, Durham. 9:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.

Mon 29: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 30: ???

Wed 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 31: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 31: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

August

Thu 01: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:30pm. £4.00.
Thu 01: Funky Drummer @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 01: Elsadie & the Bobcats @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 02: Mainly Two @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT! Fri 02: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 02: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 02: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. POSTPONED!

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Harry Klein - very much a jazz death

I've learned, rather belatedly, of the death of British baritone player Harry Klein aged 81. The first of the British baritone hierarchy, that continued through Ronnie Ross and John Surman, Harry died on June 30 but his obits only seem to have appeared this week in Jazz UK and Wednesday's Guardian. A fine player who moved in the very fast circle of Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Vic Ash, Jimmy Deuchar and other stalwarts of the British '50s/60s modern scene. Sadly missed.
Obituary. Lance.

3 comments :

Trevor said...

I loved Harry's playing - in an age of Mulligan soundalikes Harry had his own very individual style. His playing always cheered you up. Even ballads were always cheerful -nothing maudlin as you could so often get in the work of Mulligan and Lars Gullin.
There is an especially ungrateful obituary written by Mark Gilbert in the September 2010 Jazz Journal. As Mr Gilbert probably wasn't even born when Harry's career was at it's peak, I think it can be taken with more than one grain of salt.
Even in 2010 there are players who try to sound like Mulligan, not themselves. One British player, who out of pity, I won't name, has even made four CDs trying to recreate the Mulligan quartet.
RIP Harry.
Trevor

Lance said...

I have an old 10" lp by Kenny Baker called Operation Jam Session. During the course of a Ballad Medley Harry plays a sumptuous version of 'Sweet and Lovely' - magic!
I'll have to check the JJ obituary out - why speak ill of the dead?

Trevor said...

I know the record, Lance (it also came out as an EP on its own, the ballad medley that is.)

Earlier this year some 1955 Harry Klein was reissued by Vocalion on "Jazz Today" (CDNJT 5314), two EP's "Brash Baritone", a quartet session and "Baritone Saz" a quintet with Vic Ash. The rest of the CD has tracks by Vic (on clarinet throughout) and Buddy Feartherstonehaugh(ironically "doing a Mulligan").

The part of Mark Gilbert's obituary that offended me was
in mentioning that Harry was placed third in the Melody Maker Poll of 1955 behind Gerry and Lars,"the latter accolade, some would say, skewed on account of Klein's high visability at the time among London-based readers of the MM".

What Gilbert doesn't seem to understand is that the 1955 Poll, for example, would have been based on the jazz scene of 1954 and in that year though Ronnie Ross had come onto the scene, he was for much of that year, playing tenor sax, he switched to baritone when he worked with Don Rendell. In any case, with all due respect to Ron, he was very much a Mulligan-type player, as his first two records "Double Event" (1958) and "Jazzmakers" with Allan Ganley (1959) - he really didn't find his unique voice till the 60s, and "Cleopatras Needle" (Fontana, 1968) proves that, but back in 54/55 Harry was unique in having an individual sound

Trevor

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