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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

15516 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 536 of them this year alone and, so far, 25 this month (June 7).

From This Moment On ...

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
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.

Sat 10: Miners' Picnic @ Woodhorn, Ashington. Music inc. Northern Monkey Brass Band (3:00-3:50pm); New York Brass Band (4:00-4:55pm).
Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Jeremy McMurray's Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Ropner Park, Stockton TS18 4EF. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 13: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 13: Infusion Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 13: Alice Grace & Pawel Jedrzejewski @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv.).

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 14: NUJO Final Jazz Jam @ Bar Loco, Newcastle. 6:30pm. Free. Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra's final jam session of the academic year. All welcome.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
. Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

CD Review: Seth MacFarlane - Music is Better Than Words. - RELEASED TOMORROW!

Move over Bublé and the other keepers of the Gasbook flame - there's a new kid on the block.
Well, not exactly a new kid as Seth MacFarlane is described in the blurb as "Multi Emmy winning Family Guy creator."
Furthermore, the creative force behind Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, a franchise with an estimated worth of $2 billion, who has garnered four Emmys and seven nominations and is also an actor and film director goes for the full set by releasing his début vocal album on Decca.
This raises the question, would Decca have put their corporate weight behind a guy working - say Forest Hall Club - as opposed to a guy with a lot of bucks behind him?
Whatever, those issues aside, this is an excellent disc well sung with great arrangements. Inevitably, as with everyone who travels this well trodden path, the influence of Francis Albert is never far away and that is acceptable - it's only a suggestion of Old Blue Eyes after all. In actual fact the album was recorded in the Capital studio where Sinatra recorded so many of his classic tracks and indeed the recording mic - the legendary microphone nicknamed "The Frank" - was borrowed from The Smithsonian Institute for the session.
The songs are great and not at all hackneyed - my favourite lyric is the Love Won't Let You Get Away by Jimmy Van Heuson and Sammy Cahn. Lots of quadruple rhymes! 
I'll find an area,
More remote than Bavaria,
I'll still get in the hair of ya
In Bavaria 
Or Bombay.
This is what makes the Gasbook so special - Lloyd Webber couldn't get within a mile of that!
Sarah Bareilles duetted with Seth on this latter track and, earlier, Norah  Jones helped him out beautifully on Two Sleepy People. Not that he needs help. MacFarlane is a fine singer irrespective of his other talents and deserves to be heard.
The arrangements are by conductor Joel McNeeley who leads the Riddle style orchestra which includes Peter Erskine on drums, Alan Broadbent, piano, Pete Christlieb on tenor and a host of other studio names.
Other tracks are It's Anybody's Spring, the title track - Music is Better Than Words - Anytime Anywhere, The Night They Invented Champagne, You're The Cream in my Coffee, Something Good, Meredith Wilson's wonderful The Sadder But Wiser Girl For Me, It's Easy to Remember, Laura - ok so Frank wins that one but it's a split decision. She's Wonderful Too - an original by MacFarlane and McNeeley - proves that the Gasbook is still open and this is a worthy addition that deserves to be added to any perceptive singers's repertoire.
Verdict? If I were a Belle I'd be swooning... 
Seth MacFarlane: Music is Better Than Words Released by Decca August 27.
Seth MacFarlane also performs in The Broadway Sound at the Royal Albert Hall as part of The Proms on the above date and plays Ronnie Scott's on August 30.
Lance.

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