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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

15260 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 279 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (March 29).

From This Moment On ...

March

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. Due to phenomenal demand, extra tickets released - gig now in the theatre. Book at: www.bishopaucklandtownhall.org.uk
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: Jambone @ Sage Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (book online). A YMP! event in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 01: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
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.

Tue 04: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 04: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Bradley Johnston (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Greg Abate & Paul Edis @ Gala Theatre, Durham - November 11

Greg Abate (alto); Paul Edis (piano)
(Review by Brian Ebbatson/Photo courtesy of Jerry Edis/Collage courtesy of Brian Ebbatson)
Friday lunchtime at the Gala in Durham and an audience of 100 await expectantly the return of New England reedman/flautist Greg Abate and Northeast keyboardist Paul Edis. They launched straight into their programme of seven extended numbers and it was clear from the start that the prevailing spirit behind the music was Greg’s mentor and recording partner Phil Woods who passed away in September last year. Five of the pieces played were either from collaborations with Woods, from tributes to him, or tributes by Woods to fellow musicians.
They began with a favourite Abate opener, Jerome Kern’s All the Things You Are*, Greg stating the opening phrases on alto before launching into the melody and into an extended alto solo, Paul picking out chords and harmonies behind him, urging him on, before Greg hands over to Paul to plot his own path through the possibilities of the song. Greg came back with further elaborations on the theme culminating on a soaring and dipping finish.
The pace is slower for the next piece, The End of a Love Affair, which Greg features as a duet with Phil Woods on Kindred Spirits. Greg opens again but quickly Paul and he are taking lines in turn. As the solos develop a bluesy feel emerges, each player quoting parts of the theme as they develop their solos. They close with more exchanges before Greg finishes in a swirl from the bottom to the top of the register.
Between numbers Greg explained (if I heard him properly) that after visiting the North East last year he had left his flute on the tube in Glasgow. He had recovered it but because of the exigencies of his touring arrangements this year (he had left Cheltenham at 5.00am this morning and had to leave for Maidenhead early on Saturday) he had left it and his tenor at his Leicester base, a pity as his flute playing last year was exquisite.
On his 2015 CD Motif the flute features on the next number, his own composition Morning of the Leaves, a beautiful jazz waltz, Greg summoning up the mood of spring (or was it this autumn?) on his alto, quoting as we went along from Softly as the Morning Sunrise, Paul matching his lyricism on keys.
Greg now returned to Phil Woods and their recent joint CD (Woods’ last recording) Kindred Spirits, with Harold Arlen’s A Sleeping Bee, another beautiful melody. Greg begins with a delicate intro, a short bridge, then picks up the pace to introduce the full song line. Paul supports on piano as Greg stretches out once again with an intense but controlled solo, then Paul takes to over with his own explorations. Greg returns ranging to the lower registers before finishing on another bluesy, boppy flourish around the theme.
Greg reflected on the challenges of playing as a duet without bass and drums support, and how this helps reveal more from the material. Harder work for both, but perhaps a promise for even more exciting music at the Jazz Café in the evening with the full quartet.
Now the concert was in full swing and the final three numbers brought the audience to repeated rapturous applause. Greg jogged Paul’s memory with the chords and riffs of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird Suite before they set off through Bird’s masterpiece. Brilliant solos from both, phrases traded, quotes from amongst other numbers prompted by their improvisations, The Lady is a Tramp. It felt as if this is what they had been building up to in all the previous numbers.
A ballad, Moonlight in Vermont followed. Paul opened improvising on the chords, Greg took the theme, Paul picks up on his suggestions and takes the melody forward, before both take long solos, again quoting from other songs prompted by their improvisations. It’s as if they are picking up ideas from deep in their imagination and knowledge of the music, a sort of collage that had me musing of George Braque pictures or Kurt Schwitters assemblages.
The final number was Cedar’s Blues, another piece from Kindred Spirits, a tribute by Phil Woods to Cedar Walton. It’s a good paced blues, space for striding piano and almost funky alto, perhaps derived from Greg’s time with Ray Charles. Both players are clearly enjoying themselves, throwing phrases back and forth to each other as they develop the piece. Paul’s solo reminds me again of Horace Silver or was it Wyn Kelly? They come back to what we think is the final phrase, then suddenly Greg morphs the piece into Blue Monk, both stretch the theme out with lengthy solos building up to as real climax as Greg returns to Cedar’s Blues for a long drawn out swirling finish.
Brian E
*(Greg can be heard playing All the Things You Are here.


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