Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Steve Fishwick: “I can’t get behind the attitude that new is always somehow better than old” - Jazz Journal, April 15, 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!"

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

Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

November

Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). Tickets: £25.00. inc. buffet. A Gatsby themed evening.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops and Cheese, 9-11 Tower St., Hartlepool, TS24 7HH. 7:30pm.
Thu 30: Jools Holland's R & B Orchestra @ Newcastle City Hall. 7:30pm.
Thu 30: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. Guest band night: Mark Toomey Quintet (Mark Toomey, sax; Paul Donnelly, guitar; Jeremy McMurray, keys; Peter Ayton, bass; Mark Robertson, drums). 9:00pm.

December
Fri 01: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 01: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 01: Paul Skerritt @ All Saints’ Church, Eastgate, Co. Durham. 7:00pm. Xmas Tree Fest.
Fri 01: Alligator Gumbo @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 01: Nu Sound Brass @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 01: Struggle Buggy w. Jim Murray @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 02: Paula Jackman's Jazz Masters @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 02: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 02: Abbie Finn Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm.
Sat 02: Tenement Jazz Band @ John Marley Centre, Newcastle. Swing Tyne Winter Social. £8.00. + bf. Advance purchase only, no admission at the door. BYOB. Lindy hop workshop from 11:00am. £39.00.
Sat 02: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Masham, Hartburn Village, Stockton. 7:00pm. Feat. Noel Dennis.
Sat 02: Classic Swing @ The Nuthatch, 9 - 11 Bedford St, Middlesbrough TS1 2LL. 7:00-9:00pm. Classic Swing in trio format.
Sat 02: Paul Skerritt w. Danny Miller Big Band @ Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm.
Sat 02: Vermont Big Band @ Whitley Bay FC. 7:30pm. £10.00. (inc. hot buffet). Tickets available from WBFC’s Seahorse pub club house.
Sat 02: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Ponteland Social Club, Northumberland. 7:30pm. £18.00 (inc. stotties & soup supper). A fundraiser for Hexham Constituency Labour Party.
Sat 02: Durham Dynamics & Basement Jazz @ Kingsgate Bar & Café, Durham Students’ Union. 7:30pm. £5.00. (£4.50. concs.). ‘Fab & Festive’. A cappella & jazz. Abba, Mariah Carey & more.
Sat 02: Tom Remon & Laurence Harrison @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. Xmas party night inc. buffet & special raffle. £3.00.
Sat 02: Groovetrain @ The Unionist Club, Laygate, South Shields. 9:00pm.

Sun 03: The Central Bar Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. The Central Bar Quartet plays Lou Donaldson’s Gravy Train. Featuring Jamie Toms.
Sun 03: Paul Skerritt @ Smith’s Arms, Carlton, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:00pm.
Sun 03: Johnny Hunter Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 03: Jam session @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.

Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 04: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ People’s Kitchen, Bath Lane, Newcastle. From 5:30pm. On-street gig supporting the work of the People’s Kitchen charity. Wrap up warm! Donate!
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio w Lindsay Hannon @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Mon 04: Durham University Jazz Orchestra + Durham University Big Band @ Durham Castle DH1 3RW. 8:30pm. £6.00.; £5.00. concs; £4.00. DSM. ‘Jazzy Christmas’.

Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ All Saints Church, Cleadon. 7:00pm. Concert in the church hall. BYOB.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Sid White. The best free show in town!

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Free. Note later start time, concert performance (open to the public).
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Monday, April 06, 2015

Tom Harrison Quartet @ The Bridge Hotel Newcastle - Easter Sunday

Tom Harrison (alt); Jamil Sheriff (pno); Simon Read (bs); David Lyttle (dms).
(Review by Lance/photos courtesy of Ken Drew).
It's Derby Day and Newcastle have now lost five in a row - let's drown our sorrows seems to be the prevalent mood as the 27 bus cautiously makes it's way towards the Bridge Hotel expertly avoiding the bodies bestrewn across Grainger St.
Upstairs at the venue it's quieter as the punters have yet to arrive and it takes them awhile to do so. However, we eventually get a quorum and The Tom Harrison Quartet lifts off.
This is the proverbial breath of fresh air. To hear tunes you actually know rather than originals that will probably never be heard again gives the band a head start with me. I know there are others who will disagree even though the actual improvisations were as complex as any of the "I wrote this tune in the bath last night" variations so beloved by many of today's emerging jazz musicians.
Harrison successfully incorporates facets of the great modern alto players such as Bird, Cannonball, Ornette and Dolphy welding them into a distinctive style of his own. Sheriff, no stranger to Tyneside is very much the thinking man's pianist producing rich and at times unusual harmonic variations,
Read, a composer and leader in his own right (write?), slots in perfectly soloing effectively without flamboyance.
Drummer Lyttle, by contrast, is flamboyance personified - sartorially speaking, he could be Sky Masterson from Guys and Dolls! This panache is magnified after he mounts the drum throne. The most original stickman I've seen/heard yet and I've seen them all!
Hand drumming, sticks, brushes, sometimes a combination of all three, plus various items of percussion such as shakers, triangle, tambourine, drinking glass and God knows what else!
And all without missing a beat!
April in Paris; How Deep is the Ocean (Jamil feature); Body and Soul (melodic bass solo); Blue Daniel - This Cannonball Adderley tune has special memories for me bringing to mind Sunday night's at the Rex Hotel, Whitley Bay, back in the 1960's when Sid Warren used to play it quite often. I think both Cannonball and Sid would have liked this version!
I'll Be Seeing You features Lyttle who plays an extended intro/solo to this most unlikely of numbers.
Break time.
Down in the bar a heated (an understatement!) debate is taking place - not football or even jazz but politics. The language is colourful, the air distinctly blue, so I retire before the furniture starts flying.
Skylark; Stella by Starlight and Wayne Shorter's Mahjong comprise the second set and the downstairs shenanigans are consigned to history .
If this isn't my Gig of the Month it will only be because of the heavyweights slugging it out at next weekend's GIJF!
Lance.
PS: Ken Drew explains this third photo...
After the session, just as the band were starting to pack away their instruments, Jamil sat at the drums and had a quick practice session. Not to be outdone, Dave picked up the double bass, Simon sat at the keys, and Tom swapped with Jamil for a mini Jam.  What a great way to end a session !!!

3 comments :

JC said...

A great gig with very good musicians. The drummer was fantastic but Sky Masterson, surely not? He and the band are much hipper than that. He's a dead ringer for William Burroughs - what does he wear for lunch, I wonder?

JC

Paul Bream said...

At the end of this gig I said to Tom Harrison "If I'd seen your set list in advance, I might have gone home". I'm glad I didn't - this was a superb example of how much interesting and original music can still be wrung from familiar standards.
But unlike Lance, who appears to be in love with the tunes per se regardless of how clichéd the interpretation, I revere them as launch pads for creative endeavour, which is exactly what we got from Tom and his fellow musicians. So my objection to most bands who play only standards is not the familiarity of the tunes themselves, but the all too familiar way in which they are handled.
As to Lance's dismissive attitude to original compositions, I find that not only tediously conservative, but actually quite offensive towards most of the adventurous young jazz musicians whom I encounter and who think long and hard about the music they write. The tunes they devise may not be the sort you can hum on the way home, but as vehicles for improvisation they often serve their purpose superbly - and isn't improvisation, "the sound of surprise", the very thing that makes jazz such an endlessly exciting music?
I've been listening to and loving jazz for well over 50 years, but the very things that attracted me to it in the first place - the unexpected curlicue of creativity, the "Wow! I didn't expect that!" moment - are what I still hope to find at every gig I attend. I certainly found it with the Tom Harrison Quartet, but I know that I'll also find it when the Corey Mwamba Trio comes to the Bridge in a couple of weeks time, and there won't be a standard in sight.

Lance said...

Yes Paul, I am in love with the Great American Song Book - though not, as you claim, per se. Indeed there were probably many more mediocre songs written and thankfully forgotten than those that have stood the test of time. However, a good tune with a well crafted lyric has long been the staple diet of jazz artists who, like the Tom Harrison Quartet are, as you say, a "superb example of how much interesting and original music can still be wrung from familiar standards".
My dismissive attitude to original compositions certainly isn't intended to be offensive to young composers. Just as some standards have been done to death, conversely most originals don't get done at all other than by the composer and I find it sad that so much time and effort goes into writing something that may well be an outstanding work yet is never heard again other than by the same performer.. I'd like to hear the same composition played in a different context say by a different band. Perhaps if musicians supported each other's gigs this might happen!

Blog Archive