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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 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

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Mon 23: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 4:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Mon 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free. Business as usual!.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 27: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sat 28: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 11:30am. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 28: Fri 20: Castillo Nuevo @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 28: Jude Murphy, Rich Herdman & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 28: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Stepney Bank, Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sun 29: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 29: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Pannonica @ The Lit & Phil - Oct. 30.

Zoe Gilby, vocals, Andy Champion, bass and Paul Edis, Piano.
(Review/photo by Jerry)
Pannonica is Zoe Gilby’s tribute to the music of Thelonius Monk (via Carmen McRae i.e. Monk with lyrics). I’d not seen the show before but was glad I caught this abbreviated version today as it was a real treat: nine Monk tunes interspersed with anecdotes and explanations and, in passing, a top-notch impersonation of Graeme Wilson! I look forward to seeing the full programme sometime soon.
Many of the lyrics were penned by Jon Hendricks including the zingy opener Rhythm-a-ning and the three tunes which followed. Pannonica, re-titled with lyrics, became Little Butterfly – a beautiful love song in which I’m sure the lyrics captured Monk’s feelings:
Like the lovely flowers / I wait for hours Just to feel that touch / The touch that I love so much
One day she'll flutter by I'll hold out my hand / And capture my butterfly.
Monk’s Dream, or Man, That’s A Dream featured some scat and a nice bass solo and Reflections, or Looking Back had a lovely piano finish. The line: “Thank God I’m a woman who knows” sounded like Zoe justifiably defending her choice of material!
Think of One, with lyrics by a Dutch vocalist, became When I Think of One. I’m not sure how the lyrics reflect the original unless it was about insecure love: When I think of one, I think of you / When you think of one, you think of who? There was a groovy piano solo and the final “who” sounded like a Tawny Owl in full cry.
I Mean You, with lyrics by Coleman Hawkins and Hendricks featured a great bass solo and was as near to “catchy” as Monk gets. Ugly Beauty, with lyrics by Mike Ferro, became And Still We Dream – a beautiful ballad / waltz about the end of a love affair. I like the way rhymes like “charming / alarming” crop up in Ferro’s lyrics echoing the oxymoronic original title.
My two favourites on the day were Blue Monk/Monkery’s the Blues and Brilliant Corners  When I’m Alone. The latter was amazing, musically – so complex that Monk’s band in 1956 (including Sonny Rollins), after no fewer than 25 takes, gave up and an edited “composite” had to go on the album. Today’s musicians were undeterred and the audience whooped their approval. Blue Monk was the closing number and Edis and Champion, who had solo-ed brilliantly throughout, saved their best till last and Zoe, whose vocals had been mesmerising elsewhere was really at home on this “blue highway”. I loved the lyrics, too – Abbey Lincoln, I believe:
Finding your one Place in the sun, Doesn't come the easy way Shallow or deep, Nothing is cheap, Measured by the dues you pay..
The lyrics perfectly fitted the tune – but not the occasion: I paid £4 and this was worth SO much more. I loved every minute!
Jerry

1 comment :

Nonsociopath Skin said...

An excellent gig. I wasn't sure I liked Thelonius Monk's music until then ...

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