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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

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 ...

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. 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.).

Monday, September 03, 2012

CD Review: John Surman – Saltash Bells (ECM 279 8108)


John Surman (various instruments.)
(Review by Wes.)
It has certainly been a great pleasure for me to have spent the last few weeks giving repeated listening to one of the new ECM recordings that is Saltash Bells by John Surman. I would however say that it is certainly one that presses the inevitable question of how well can you actually put into words a series of such spacious and free spirited musical compositions, for indeed music surely is it’s own language.
Within the pieces contained on this record I can find reference points and use written language but by no means can or will I get close to the truth and expression of the thing, the music itself.
The more I listen to the contemporary output of ECM the more I feel that the idea of Jazz music is progressing, regressing, pushing and pulling to such an extent it remains actually true to only one thing, and that thing is the artist or artists themselves, regardless of the shape shifting banner it paints itself under, which is “Jazz”. To be fair for a quite a number of years I’ve been struggling in my own mind to reconcile in the contemporary and progressive culture of that word what it means anymore, and the debate I believe will perpetually continue.
An album such as this certainly seems to validate my point.
My initial and remaining feelings from the record is that it actually reminds me as much of a great and rich history of Jazz saxophone players as much as it does medieval music and the kind of ethereal and ambient electronic musicians that I used to listen to in the mid nineties, artists such as Coldcut or The Orb for instance. These artists at the time that although seemed to fall into a category of ambient, electronic, break-beat or even techno music but seemingly remained outside the sphere and were individual, independent and remained with their own voice.
Another way to express this is to say that aforementioned Coldcut playing Autumn Leaves for me was just simply a beautiful piece of electronic ambient music which I later discovered was considered to be a piece of classic Jazz history and repertoire.  It was years later that I only realised this as a passion for Jazz developed, similarly The Orb were artists that used samples as the crux of their music, some which undoubtedly come from Jazz forms and origin, and so it seems Jazz music does not only work in cycles but crosses the circles too, envelopes, flutters, fleets and uses any form necessary to find it’s way out through the instruments, the individuals, the bands and musicians and to us the listeners.
Indeed the playing and compositions on this record are lyrical, free, pleasant, bright, breezy, strangely familiar and warming by that familiarity. Once again embracing, spacious and what seems to be an almost trademark ECM stamp, that of being free, ethereal and timeless.
To sum up a fine record indeed and as easy going on the ear as it is with a subtle combination of Soprano, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones, Bass and Contrabass Clarinets, Harmonica, Synthesizer and Samples, all played and created by Surman himself, this is not a series of recordings to be underestimated or taken lightly, his first solo recording since 1994, a remarkable thing.
Feel it.
Wesley Stephenson 

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