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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 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

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 1:00-2:45pm. Free.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Jude Murphy & Alan Law @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free.
Sun 22: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Richard Herdman @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: Remy CB Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Remi, 2024 Newcastle Uni graduate, superb soul/blues voice!

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Paul Booth with the Paul Edis Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert! SOLD OUT!

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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