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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 2024).

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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Josh Weir: I love the writing on bebop spoken here... I think the work you are doing is amazing.

Postage

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 1:00-2:45pm. Free.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Jude Murphy & Alan Law @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free.
Sun 22: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Richard Herdman @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: Remy CB Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Remi, 2024 Newcastle Uni graduate, superb soul/blues voice!

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Paul Booth with the Paul Edis Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert! SOLD OUT!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

CD Review: Shane Cooper - Oscillations.

Shane Cooper (Bass); Bokani  Dyer (Keys); Reza Khota (Guitar); Kesivan Naidoo (Drums); Justin Bellairs (Alto); Buddy Wells (Tenor).
(Review by Steve H.)
One of the greatest gigs I ever attended was in the early 80's at the 100 Club in Oxford Street when the cream of exiled South African Jazz musicians, led on this night by Johnny Dyani and his band Witchdoctor’s Son, had the entire club on their feet dancing around the tables. Sadly much of that group  Chris McGregor on Piano, Dudu Pukwana on Saxophone and Dyani himself on bass are no longer with us all passing away far too young. We are lucky that legends from that era are still performing such as  Louis Moholo the drummer from Witchdoctor’s Son and the more internationally renowned Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim to name but three.
Shane Cooper is a highly accomplished young South African bass player arranger and composer so I was really looking forward to hearing the new South African Jazz.
The album kicks of with Broken Blues which begins as if were part of the soundtrack for a Star Trek movie but soon makes it’s mark with some fine sax solos and a lively piano solo by Dyer.  Destination Unknown is a muscular number  led by the Alto player  Bellairs containing quotes from A Love Supreme Dead Letters is as the title suggests a rather morbid piece heavily influenced by Jaco Pastorious one would imagine.  The next three numbers  Shadowplay, The Herdsman and Drop Down/Deconstruct   are Jazz Rock pieces much in the Weather Report vein. Oriah is a post Bebop offering and Big Sky is a quite a mournful ballad. The title piece Oscillations is a meandering complex piece with lots of interesting time changes. The album concludes with a  reprise  Dead Letters which showcase’s Cooper’s admirable Double Bass skills.
All the players on this album are extremely gifted  and the rhythm section really drives the sound. Cooper’s compositions are top notch but this album owes more to the Jazz fusion world then it does to the legacy of the great South African bands of the exiled apartheid era.
As a postscript to the aforementioned gig one of the lads out with us that night noticed that Witchdoctor’s Son were playing the 100 Club again a couple of weeks later but instead of telling his mates who had accompanied him to the initial gig he used it as an opportunity to impress a young lady. When we found out we were furious especially as he said the second gig was just as good  as the first one. I would like to say he got happily married to the person in question but the relationship didn't last much longer and 30 years later I am still bearing a grudge!
Shane Cooper's Oscillation is currently available from Home Grown Records.

Steve H.

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