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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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

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 + Abbie Finn @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Wednesday, June 08, 2016

CD Review: Jason 'El Rubio' McGuire - Terceto Kali

Jason McGuire (Guitar); Paul Martin Sounder (Bass); Marlon Aldana (Drums).
(Review by Steve T)
It's probably a man-thing but we've been seeding guitarists like tennis players since Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds fearing they were starting to sound like the Beatles. Known at the time as God, everything was about to change with the arrival on the scene of a certain Jimi. In truth, we had very little to go on, but I wonder what we would have made of Jason McGuire aka El Rubio?
Whenever anyone asks me who is the world’s greatest guitarist, which happens more often than you would think, I always propose it's likely some unknown Spaniard in his thirties. El Rubio is, in fact, a Texan with Irish roots (the band hail from the Bay Area) who cut his chops listening to Hendrix and the British 'blues' guitarists; presumably Eric and other Yardbirds’ and Bluesbreakers’ alumni: Peter Green, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.
However, it was on hearing Paco DeLucia that everything changed for him. Paco is largely responsible for spreading flamenco music worldwide and is equally revered in Jazz, Jazz-rock and Gypsy Jazz circles and I must concur, he's the most mind-bogglingly magnificent guitarist I've ever heard.
Virtuoso guitarists of the calibre of Paco and El Rubio often struggle to remain on the side of good taste, straying into performing circus tricks; impressive but meaningless in a musical context. Paco’s musicality is perennially intact and El Rubio more or less pulls it off too. 
While there are distinct features of each, the album serves up a superb fusion of flamenco and the Jazz guitar trio format. Although I have very little knowledge of flamenco, with over fifty distinct styles, it seems to me that it isn't just one with elements, textures and characteristics of the other, but a seamless conflation of the two.
This is evident on the album opener Zardoz, featuring flamenco guitar stylings assimilated into a basic Jazz guitar trio, which is disrupted after the four-minute mark by a short cante from guest vocalist Jose Cortes, further reminding the listener that it's also flamenco. 
Kali also has a flamenco style song-form featuring Jose Cortes, and A Liberty and Contratempio sound, to these untrained ears, like fairly straightforward flamenco.  
In contrast, Zap is reminiscent of Birds of Fire by the Mahavishnu Orchestra but on acoustic guitar and, while Rick Laird never used a bowed double bass, it was a prominent feature of both Miroslav Vitous and Stanley Clarke, enhancing the evocation of Jazz-rock, but retaining a flamenco sensibility.
The final track, Motivation is perhaps the most interesting from a Jazz perspective; at almost ten minutes it's free throughout with no repetitive rhythm and each musician taking the lead in turn. 
Romance is one of two songs on the album written for his wife, flamenco dancer Yaelisa, and he demonstrates a tenderness often lacking in guitarists who specialise in godzillions of notes per nanosecond.
For once, I'm encouraged there could be a market for a CD. Flamenco has a broad cross-cultural appeal and enjoys popularity around the world' and I hear no reason why the Jazz content would detract from this. Furthermore, there is much here to appeal to anybody who appreciates Jazz guitar, particularly anyone bored by the constant recycling of formulaic clichés, or Jazz more broadly.
Out now and recommended.
Steve T.

1 comment :

Steven T said...

For anybody interested in flamenco, or guitar geniuses more generally, Paco Pena, arguably the finest exponent of the style since the death of Paco De Lucia, returns to the Sage on July 18th.

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