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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.

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'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.

Thursday, March 08, 2012

CD Review: Esbjorn Svensson Trio – “301”

Rather unfortunately I never got to see the Esbjorn Svensson Trio play live before the untimely, unfortunate and tragic death of Svennson himself a few years ago, but I was most pleased to have recently been handed a copy to review of the bands new post humus album release entitled “301”, named quite simply due to it’s location of recording, at Studio 301 in Sydney, Australia.
The album features seven tracks in total and runs at just past an hour. For me the tracks “Inner City, Inner Lights”  and “Three Falling Free Part Two”  are the stand out numbers if I had to pick, but ultimately  this is a real journey album, a piece you want to sit and listen through from to start to finish proper, a slow and deliberate, delicate and fragile record, to absorb the meaning and content to it’s full expression, to let it wash through you and understand the whole rather than the individual compositions or indeed the individual group members themselves.
The music is beautifully textural and layered, the classic Jazz Trio of Piano, Bass and Drums, with the added ingredient of Electronics which rather than clutter the music actually furthers to create a depth and spaciousness that allows the rhythm and melody to step slowly forward. Indeed this is tranquil music, cinematic and orchestral, laid back, but by no means lazy.
This is most definitely a modern Jazz record, a record full of blues and hypnotism with a foot and seed firmly rooted in something older, something deeper ,a respect for origins but rather than rest on the laurels of the past it remains progressive whilst quietly nodding it’s head and tipping it’s hat, blood runs thick.
With that in mind it’s as easy to reference the likes of the French pop band “Air” as much as it would the great Jazz pianist Paul Bley, and whilst Esbjorn Svensson, Dan Berglund and Magnus Ostrum provide the core of the music for the record the added ingredient of regular live sound and recording engineer and sound processor Ake Linton there’s a kind of Brian Enoesque feeling that runs through the record, the fourth member of the trio if you will, another something else.
To my mind that key element of crossover is what I find attractive and exciting about E.S.T. The music isn’t deliberately “out there” but sometimes cant help find itself in that realm as much as it might then return to a more formal and recognised structure, such is the nature of a record compiled from a collection of nine hours worth of jamming from four well adept and open minded musicians who have worked up to this point together for fourteen years as well as individually for undoubtedly all their lives, indeed there is an understanding between players which can well be heard.
A brief note on production would be to say that the record sounds great, a lovely warm recording with everything well balanced and cutting through, but most importantly the feeling is captured, a testament to what a great band and gang of improvisers E.S.T really were and for the most part will always remain in the Jazz public consciousness, for those who choose to listen.
Wesley Stephenson.
Esbjorn Svensson Trio: 301. ACT 90292. Release date March 26, 2012.

2 comments :

Judy Coo (On Facebook). said...

This will be going in my shopping basket and lucky me its released on my birthday too :-)

Daniel Reed (On Facebook). said...

Ive got the Best of E.S.T: Such a great trio, never really know what is going to happen next!

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