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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

June

Sat 03: Newcastle Record Fair @ Northumbria University, Newcastle NE8 8SB. 10:00am-3:00pm. Admission: £2.00.
Sat 03: Pedigree Jazz Band @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 03: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Sue Ferris. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 03: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 03: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 04: Jam No. 18 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Jazz North East ‘On the Outside’: Hans Peter Hiby Trio @The Bridge Hotel, Newcastle – November 6.

Hans Peter Hiby (tenor, alto & soprano); Mick Bardon (bass); Paul Hession (drums)
(Review/photos courtesy of Ken Drew)
Tremendous!!  This was the last of a four part mini-tour by the group, taking in Scotland and the Midlands and leaving the best till last for their final performance at the Bridge Hotel.   And what a blast – still full of such brutal energy, constantly driving power and a raw attack associated with the likes of Peter Brötzmann whom I’d seen over a decade ago, yet the Hans Peter Hiby performance tonight seemed so much more considered and accessible to me.

Hiby/Hession have played throughout Germany as well as Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands and on occasions augmented the duo with bass players Marcio Mattos, Roberto Bellatalla, Peter Kowald and recently Dieter Manderscheid.   Paul Hession is such a sympathetic partner on drums since Hiby has worked with him on and off since the mid-‘80s, often just as a duo.  For this short UK tour, Leeds-based bass player Michael Bardon completes the trio. He has played throughout the UK and Europe including festivals in Sardinia, Germany, Italy and Poland and his dynamic playing is the perfect fit for this trio.  So the addition of Bardon presented opportunities of greater interaction and dynamic variety across the group, producing a performance that combined high octane power with many moments of thoughtful and carefully crafted subtlety.  

And what a performance.  They hit the ground running.  It was immediately apparent that the key elements would be hugely energetic and thrilling, yet was soon to be intertwined with nicely contrasting melodic sections at a slower, albeit temporary pace.   All pieces in the concert were mined a similar vein, yet each developed and flowed differently – each having its own personality and mood.
It was not just Hiby on the sax simply producing the notes, but his gentle swaying and occasional thrusting of the sax into the air all added to the final delivery of an extraordinarily energetic performance.   It was not just an energetic delivery, but vibrant, screaming, flowing, thrilling, pounding, soaring, swirling, gesturing, grovelling, altogether coaxing the sound out of the sax and into the room.  And what a space this is for such an acoustic performance.  Hiby afterwards, as others have in the past, commented on the joy of playing in this space.

Was the sax driving the others, or maybe it was the drums driving the others ….. or maybe they took turns, who knows ?  The resultant sound of the sax produced by Hiby had a generally soft but very confident and strident delivery, rarely whispering, but more often tonally pure.  But occasionally a harsher Brotzman-like sound pushed it further into a split-tone producing complex harmonics, perfectly supported and followed by the others.

Motian’s facial expression changed very little throughout.  Admittedly,  his eyes closed once in a while to aid concentration, and occasionally looked across at Hiby and Bardon to assess the next area of exploration. But generally all of Motian’s expressions were in his musical output – conservation of energy and all that to power the continuous onslaught from the drum kit.  And Bardon’s contribution was equally full of vigour and drive.

The result?  It was Brotzman-like power jazz, industrial strength improv and a very memorable performance at that.  Aptly given on November 6 – indoor pyrotechnics were the norm.  Tremendous.

Ken.

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