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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

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).

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Paul Skerritt @ Vespa Italian Bar & Steakhouse, Primrose Hill, Jarrow. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 483 3355.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

CD Review: Count Basie - Original Album Series

The Atomic Mr Basie (1957)*
One More Time (1958)
Count Basie Swings, Tony Bennett Sings (1959)
Chairman of the Board (1959)
Basie at Birdland (1961).
(Review by Lance).
OMG! Must check the calendar - it's either Xmas Day or it's my birthday! Unless my parents were lying, it's not but it sure feels like it!
Four albums by the most swinging band ever, plus one with a guy who could sing a bit, make this my album (box set) of the year. Sure the Ellington Band had more depth of colour, tonal textures etc. but even Gonsalves swinging his butt off at Newport 56 never got within an inch of this band for sheer excitement.
Most people will have one or more of these albums - me and everyone else has the Atomic which is surely the all-time greatest big band album (debate?) and the Bennett/Basie has been around in so many formats that it is easy to dismiss it as commercial fluff - far from it - Bennett and Basie establish the same rapport as the Count did with Old Blue Eyes. The other three albums I've heard over the years and it has to be said that they are on the same exalted plateau as the Atomic. Basie at Birdland has Jon Hendricks driving the crowd crazy with his vocalese/scatting on Whirly Bird. On the same disc Budd Johnson blows great tenor on Segue in C .
This was a band! Just look at the (collective) personnel - Newman, Jones, Culley, Snooky, on trumpets; Al Grey (which north east jazzer didn't just love Al?), Bennie Powell, Henry Coker, on trombones; the two Franks, Lockjaw (another north east fave), Marshall Royal, Billy Mitchell, Budd Johnson, Charlie Fowlkes, on reeds; and, of course, Basie on piano, Freddie Greene on guitar, Eddie Jones on bass and the flamboyant Sonny Payne on drums. The discs bring back so many memories of concerts at Newcastle City Hall and elsewhere.
How can anyone be less than ecstatic about music like this?
I recall seeing Basie at Newcastle's Odeon cinema. Earlier that day, I'd split up with a girl friend and the last thing I needed was sitting through a concert with an empty seat next to me. It only took the opening One O'Clock Jump (or whatever) for me to move on!
Yet another one of  Warner Jazz's magnificent original album series.
Amazon.
Lance.
*Atomic Mr Basie is a 1994 re-mastered version of the 1957 recording. I'm not sure why they do this as the sound is much warmer on the original vinyl. However, by messing about with the controls you can get it back to near enough the original sound!

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