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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15867 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 874 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (Sept. 25).

From This Moment On ...

September

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Paul Wight (drums).

Sunday, September 23, 2012

CD Review: Dan Block - Duality.

Dan Block (ten/bar/clt/bs clt) and various duo partners.
(Review by Lance.)
A duo album is always going to be a challenge and this album is no exception, However, I'm pleased to report,  reedman Dan Block and his various co-pilots rise to the challenge and emerge triumphantly.
It's very much an introverted performance that is also profoundly moving.- no flash bang wallop behind a thousand notes here! Rather, the overall feel is one of beauty sometimes joyous, often melancholic.
Long Ago and Far Away with pianist Ted Rosenthal's sublime support gives a whole new feel to the Kern classic - Warne Marsh and Lennie spring to mind. Walter Donaldson's I'm Bringing You a Red Red Rose, a long, perhaps unjustly, forgotten pop song brings on bassist Lee Hudson to lay down some complementary lines behind the tenor solo. A Block original, Chorino for Dennis, brought the composer together with Paul Mayers. Block's clarinet and Mayers' Brazilian guitar gel nicely in a delightful little romp.
Catherine Russell takes the vocal on Tadd Dameron's If You Could See Me Now with Block weaving intricate tenor lines in and around the Christy cool vocal and, unlike the late Misty Miss Christy, the intonation is spot on!. Block describes his own composition Out of Touch as "Two fujitives bushwacking their way through the perilous chords." The other fugitive is National  Steel guitarist Matt Munistieri. With Block on an Albert System bass clarinet the feel is a cross 'twixt Hot Club and Country.
The Ellington/Blanton classic, Pitter, Panther, Patter is an intriguing mix of horns with Scott Robinson adding tenor, baritone and various clarinets to augment Blocks own armoury of horns. It works well.
Lyric Waltz features pianist Rosanno Sportiello in tandem with the Block clarinet - Goodman Trio minus Krupa is the verdict and it still swings!
In the Dark, an almost lost Bix composition, is an immensely  compelling piece. like the more well known In a Mist, there is a hint of Debussy. Mark Sherman's vibes adds colour to Block's tenor solo which, although contemporary, retains the spirit of the composer. Sherman, incidentally, owns the record company and most of the artists featured here can be heard as leaders in their own right. Check out the Miles High Records site. My Own Morning, a Julie Styne Tony award winning song from 1967 has pianist Rosenthal returning to explore the melodic and harmonic possibilties which they do effectively,
The Jazz Samba, inspired by the Bill Evans/Jim Hall version is enhanced by the guitar of Sol Rubin - Block digs deep on baritone before some contrapuntal lines take it out.
At last a drummer! Tim Horner joins forces with Hudson on bass and they combine to send Block off to (I'll) Build a Stairway to Paradise. On this tune he's a Master Builder even if he does admit he cheated by making this last track a trio number!
Dan Block: Duality Miles High Records.Available now.
Lance.

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