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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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

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.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Jack DeJohnette Group/Polar Bear @ The Sage, Gateshead.

Jack DeJohnette (dms); Don Byron (ten./sop.clt); George Colligan (keys/tpt); Marvin Sewell (gtr); Michael Mondesir (bs).
(Review by Lance)
DeJohnette took his seat (throne?) behind the kit and made various adjustments as the audience sat in hushed silence awaiting to hear the great man speak. This he eventually did, introducing the members of the band by name before setting the ball rolling with a drum introduction to his own composition - Blue. In fact all five extended pieces were DeJohnette originals.
Colligan was the first up to the plate blowing a pocket trumpet from which he produced a big fat sound. I'd liked to have heard more trumpet from him but, for the rest of the 90 minute set he concentrated on the assortment of keyboards he was surrounded by - occasionally playing different keyboards simultaneously as well as the concert grand. 
Byron impressed on tenor but I was somewhat surprised that the regular Down Beat poll winner on clarinet seemed to be playing exclusively in the higher register - or was it a soprano clarinet? From where I was sitting way back it did appear to be shorter than the standard Bb instrument.
Marvin Sewell played some powerful solos and former Jazz Warrior Mondesir was equally impressive.
Unusually for a drummer/leader we weren't overpowered by a barrage of drum solos. Where DeJohnette really came into his own was in his ability to vary the pace and the mood to suit the soloist. 
It was a good gig that, if it didn't set The Sage on fire, certainly kept it warm and was surely deserved of a larger audience.
Programme: Blue; One For Eric; Tango African; Lydia (dedicated to his wife); Ahmad the Terrible.
Earlier, British experimental band Polar Bear - Seb Rochford (dms); Mark Lockheart, Pete Wareham (ten); Tom Herbert (bs); Leafcutter John (electronics) - played an opening set that was well received by most of the audience.
Lance.

1 comment :

John Moles said...

I have to say that at least on the night I thought 'Polar Bear' was the better band: more 'composed through' (or at least 'arranged through' compositions), more variety in all departments, better bass (moving to see the old upright form playing such a varied and pivotal role), better group interaction, and better solo-ing (maybe also better drumming). De Johnette's group was 'jazzier' (not that 'Polar Bear', despite funkiness, wasn't squarely within the tradition) but lacked solist distinction (essential in such contexts). The keyboards were OK (certainly not helped by back facing the audience on the grand), the guitarists competent but undistinguished, Byron surely a major disappointment. Though the clarinet imported interesting and distinctive sonorities, the soloing itself wasn't great and the man himself seemed an ironic and detached figure. We had to leave at 10 (train to catch) and perhaps it got better, but the 'London Jazz Review' was surely way over the top.

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