Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

June

Sat 03: Newcastle Record Fair @ Northumbria University, Newcastle NE8 8SB. 10:00am-3:00pm. Admission: £2.00.
Sat 03: Pedigree Jazz Band @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 03: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Sue Ferris. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 03: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 03: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 04: Jam No. 18 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Alister Spence Trio w. Raymond MacDonald @ The Lit and Phil, Newcastle.

Alister Spence (pno), Joe Williamson (pno), Raymond MacDonald (alt/sop), Chris Cantilo (dms).
I hold my hand up and confess - not for me. I'm in the minority - the audience applauds vociferously, CD's are bought and the Lit and Phil is surely delighted that this, their first concert collaboration with Jazz North East, meets with such a good response.
However, the music values that I hold dear are absent and, although there are moments that grab me, all too soon they disinteregate and disappeared off into jazz's hinterlands.
So, as the parade has passed me by, on this occasion I'll invite Russell, George M, Wes, or whoever cares to, to give a more reasoned, knowing, view on the gig.
This isn't a reflection on the music - it's self-criticism.
Lance.
NB: Do like the new JNE banner.

2 comments :

russell said...

I think I concur with the general thrust of your argument. There was some blistering playing but, perhaps as the photograph suggests, something was absent.

Russell

George Milburn said...

It wasn't easy for me to lever myself out on Friday having, like poor Russell, the head-cold from hell. Add to this my reaction to Alister's performance at The Cluny last year which didn't really move me, so I impressed myself that I GOT to the Lit n Phil. Of course I knew how much Chris Calver had riding on this 1st jazz gig and wanted to show my support, not to mention that I won Alister's FIT album in the raffle at the Dr Chad gig last year.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Why?
I sat as close to the drum kit as HSE guidelines recommend, finding Chris Cantillo's percussion flea circus absolutely compelling. I handed him a butterfly nut that had fallen off the bass drum - he nodded and added it to the array of prayer bells on the snare drum - ting!
Then there was the inimitable Raymond MacDonald, who stepped forward from under the portrait of Gene Hackman's grandad with Babaresque determination and stance to match - his blend of circular breathing chromatics and contrasting lyrical phrasing had the cobra of my interest well and truly charmed!
Joe Williamson's devotion to his bass gut strings - plucked and bowed - combined with his Joe 90 specs also had me enthralled - cool but essential in his improvisational technique.
In all honesty I think we have Alister to thank for bringing these 3 together and providing the string percussion. He's a bloody good piano player but he's Legion - now Keith Jarrett, now Cecil Taylor, now Keith Tippett - for me he needs to come out, on his OWN side!
As a jazz venue, the room was brightly incongruous with the ghostly portraits of the Lit & Phil's literati looking disapprovingly down. Raymond's swaying Soprano sax however turned the one red spotlight by the piano into my own personal disco strobe, which added to the surreality of the happening.
Let's face it, I haven't really forgiven Alister for not knowing who Peter Sculthorpe is!

Blog Archive