Total Pageviews

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.

Tuesday, November 08, 2016

CD Reviews: Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus - The Distance. Jakob Bro Trio - Streams.

Michael Formanek (bass), Thomas Fujiwara (drums), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Kris Davis (piano), Patricia Brennan (marimba), Mark Helias (conductor).
Brass - David Ballou, Ralph Alessi, Shane Endsley, Kirk Knuffka, Alan Ferber, Jacob Garchik, Ben Gerstein, Jeff Nelson.
Reeds - Loren Stillman, Oscar Noriega, Chris Speed, Brian Settles, Tim Berne.
(Review by Steve T).
Reviewing ECM CDs is a bit like the American election - even this one; or for that matter a British election, though that may be changing. 40% of readers will have both of them already and another 40% wouldn't have either in the house.
I'm one of the undecideds - the Lib Dems, the independents - with a love-hate relationship with the label.

The Distance works as an entire album so singling out specific tracks is irrelevant. It starts slowly and sounds very much classical, but with light drums and compelling bass playing which runs throughout the album, and it was only after the first play I found out the band takes the bass players name.
Gradually it transforms into something more akin to the Miles/Gil Evans collaborations from the late fifties, with which it shares its holistic qualities.
The 'boring' bits are there to make the great bits even greater and you lose so much if you pull out Summertime or It Ain't Necessarily So out of Porgy and Bess.
In fact this album may well have been made for me as the Zappa influence comes through louder and clearer as it progresses, though solely in Strictly Genteel mode.
Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Alan Ferber on trombone and Mary Halvorson on guitar deserve mention for particularly striking solos.

Jakob Bro (guitar), Thomas Morgan (double bass), Joey Baron (drums).
This is the type of stuff critics of the label point at, myself included. A famous musician visiting the North East compared ECM to walking in the mountains above the fjords in Norway and this album is certainly from the very low key end of things. I know many people like this and indeed, this is the very quality that they look for from the label, pointing out that it's always done terribly tastefully.
Track four, Full Moon Europais the only track which produces any real fireworks but, like John Abercrombie’s bass trio stuff on the label, this is in no small part due to some inventive swirling drumming, though the guitar also has a rockier edge.
For the undecided needing a nudge, my vote goes The Distance.
Steve T.

2 comments :

Hugh said...

So, Formanek trumps Bro!

(I'll get my coat)

Steve T said...

BumBum.

Turns out I saw Bro in Cheltenham with Lee Konitz and Dave Douglas a couple of years back. Having seen Konitz eighteen months earlier, he'd really lost the plot and the gig was a mess.
I t was billed as a super-group and the Asian lady on the bass was terrific though she looked terrified (they were about to take it on tour), but Dave Douglas, in mischievous Bob Downey Junior mode, spotted a free run and dazzled.
I remember the guitarist played a telecaster, apparently the preferred solid body guitar for Jazz.

Blog Archive