Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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

15229 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 248 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (March 20).

From This Moment On ...

March

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Traveller's Rest, Cockerton. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public). Note change of venue - CANCELLED CEILING COLLAPSED!
Wed 22: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Thu 23: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Bar Loco, Newcasatle. From 6:30pm 'til late. Free. Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra jam session. All welcome (students & non-students).
Thu 23: Kerrin Tatman + John Garner & John Pope @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 23: Sunna Gunnlaugs & Julia Hülsmann @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm. A two-piano gig. A Sage Gateshead-JNE promotion.
Thu 23: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano.
Thu 23: Sleep Suppressor @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00., £8.00. adv. Upstairs.
Thu 23: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: FILM: Mo' Better Blues @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Fri 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Scarth Hall, Staindrop, Co. Durham. 8:00pm. £10.00.
Fri 24: Archipelago + Bulbils @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 25: Vermont Big Band @ Walker Community Centre, Walker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Fundraiser for Benfield Juniours Football Club. Hot food available, BYOB.
Sat 25: John Logan & Friends @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rat Pack, Motown etc. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Interview with Gwyneth Herbert by Lance

L. Your new album, “The Sea Cabinet”, was launched last month at Wilton’s Music Hall but the actual tour proper commences tonight – that’s June 12 – at Sage Gateshead.
GH: That’s right.   This is our first large-scale UK tour for a while, and many of the venues have a particular resonance with me and the project.  When I first sang at Wilton’s three years ago, I fell immediately in love with it. It's the oldest surviving Grand Music Hall in the world and it feels as if the very walls whisper with the ghosts of cabaret past; seems to me the most perfect location in which to launch our story-web of sea songs. I also love The Sage – it’s a great space to play, and I've developed my relationship with the venue by working and performing there in a variety of different guises over the last ten years or so.
L Listening to tracks from the album and reading the press release it seems to me to be a giant step away from anything you've done previously, would you agree?  I'm familiar with Bittersweet and Blue and of course I enjoyed your last visit to Sage Gateshead – The Peggy Lee Project – but this is a very different project indeed.
GH: Every day I seem to be taking giant steps away from the one that went before, only to leap sideways and then jump back again the next. In one week I might be recording some 18th Century murder ballads for Radio 4, composing a film score for toy orchestra, singing “Why Don’t You Do Right” with a big band, researching maps for a musical about the inventor of the A – Z, producing a neo-cabaret satirical comedy record, rewriting folk legends with kids, having my head cast in plaster for an art exhibition about obsession and desire… I don’t see my “career” as a linear progression.  It’s a kind of frenetic, ever-expanding hopscotch. On the spot.
L:  The diversity of material should appeal as much to the folk world as well as to the jazz world? The songs are so descriptive of the people and places portrayed.
GH: Isn't it funny how we are still obsessed with genre? Almost as if it’s an ethnicity, or an old school tie.  My songs are inspired – as you so rightly point out – by people and places. I’m a story magpie, and as I wrote most of the album whilst staying on the Suffolk coast, many of the sonic and lyrical ideas are thieved from my time there – the chattering of fisherman, the cry of the gulls, a chance encounter with a beachcomber… This emphasis on narrative in song is certainly present in the folk tradition.  And having jazz musicians in my band – access to that wonderful improvisatory dialogue between players - certainly informs the sound.  In “The Sea Cabinet” there are elements of shanty and bubblegum pop and barbershop music hall… but really it’s the magically diverse language of the sea and the coast that we’re exploring.  And I hope anyone can be transported to Mrs Wittering’s faded seaside hotel or be seduced by Lorelei’s moans… no matter what “tie” they may be wearing.
L: Will you be using a choir at Sage Gateshead as you did at Wilton’s Music Hall?
GH: We have a very special Pirate Chorus from Burnside College in Wallsend!  I came up yesterday to have a session with the kids yesterday and teach them the harmonies... I'm really excited they’re joining us onstage tonight.
L: Do you see your future as composing and singing your own material or will you still dip into the Songbook?
GH: The short answer is yes.  In terms of album output, since Bittersweet and Blue was released 8 years ago, there have been 3 Herbert records with only one cover between them - David Bowie’s “Rock and Roll Suicide” – and in fact it’s only very recently that I’ve allowed myself to fall in love with jazz again.  Not that I ever fell out of love with it, just that I was busy investigating and making and playing and falling in love with other things. I loved singing the beautiful songs of Peggy Lee, and later this year am continuing my association with the wonderful “Café Society” project, exploring the songs and stories of the legendary Greenwich Village Club of the same name.   I am sure that jazz and the Songbook will continue to be a part of what I do.
L:. You attended Durham University. Do you still feel an affinity with the area?
GH: Every time the Cathedral looms large and beautiful into view, I get all misty-eyed out of the train window.  I made my strongest friendships and spent some of my most wonderful years here – playing with Brancepeth trio as “Gwynnie and the Pacemakers”, cutting my teeth with guitarist Will Rutter at Durham cafes and Newcastle bars and nearby forest parties…  I love the musicality of the accents, I love being called flower and pet and darlin’ in the space of one sentence.  I love the river and the green spaces and the cobbles and most of all the people. 
L: Finally, you were part of the Take 5 development scheme.  Has this been of great value to you?
GH: It certainly has.  As part of the scheme, we had access to inspiring people from all areas of the industry who encouraged us as independent artists to think creatively about the business aspects of our career, rather than seeing the elements as mutually exclusive.  I found the whole thing experience empowering.  And I also met a bunch of incredible musicians, got an insight into their very different approaches to artistic process, and made some wicked music together… look out for various collaborations hitting the stages in the next couple of years!
L: Thank you Gwyneth - I'm very much looking forward to tonight's concert.
Tonight's performance by Gwyneth Herbert of The Sea Cabinet is at 8pm in Hall Two, Sage Gateshead. £16.50. Tel 0191 4434661.

2 comments :

Ian Talbot Paterson (on F/b) said...

Good stuff. We were at Durham Uni together. She was fantastic back then and has gone from strength to strength since!

Liz said...

smart lady! a good interview Lance.. well done!
Liz

Blog Archive