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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 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

17602 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 876 of them this year alone and, so far, 21 this month (Dec. 11).

From This Moment On ...

December

Thu 12: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay. 12 noon. £27.00. (inc. three -course meal).
Thu 12: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-6:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 12: Stuart Turner @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 12: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Jeremy McMurray (keys); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Donna Hewitt (tenor sax); Kevin Eland (trumpet); Ron Smith (bass).

Fri 13: Dean Stockdale Trio @ Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Bellavana @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Customs House Big Band @ Stocksfield Community Association. 7:00pm. Featuring Ruth Lambert.
Fri 13: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 13: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £19.00. + bf. First night of two.
Fri 13: Ransom Van @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Fri 13: Boys of Brass @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 9:00pm. £10.00.

Sat 14: Jambone @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:15pm. Free but ticketed.
Sat 14: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm.
Sat 14: Red Kites Jazz @ Staiths Café, Autumn Dr., Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 14 Lapwing Jazz Trio @ Three Sheets to the Wind, Alnwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 14: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £19.00. + bf. Second night of two.
Sat 14: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 15: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 12 noon. £8.50. Xmas party feat. Musicians Unlimited + Customs House Big Band. SOLD OUT!
Sun 15: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 2:00pm.
Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Mitch Laddie Band @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb blues power trio.
Sun 15: Leeway @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.
Sun 15: Alligator Gumbo @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 12 noon. £9.95. ‘Festive Turkey Dinner’. Book now: 0191 266 8137.
Mon 16: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Tue 17: Paul Edis & Friends: A Jazzy Xmas @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm.
Tue 17: BBC Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘A Swinging Xmas’.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.
Tue 17: Bellavana @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 7:45-9:35pm. Free.

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.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Tell me Wynton Marsalis Are There Any More at Home Like You? - There Are a Few...

Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra campaign to Make America Great Again! with infectious big band sound.
The New Orleans ensemble blends patriotism, protest, swing and groove on debut CD, out Sept. 30 from Troubadour Jass Records
I received this disc a couple of month’s back and the title made it a ‘ no – no’ for instant posting – there was only one day ever I could post it - today. I listened to it and it occurred to me that music could, and indeed, always will make, not just America, but the World, great again (in my dreams). Nevertheless, take my word, it’s a great big band album. Although, after reading the press release, maybe they won’t be playing at the inaugural ceremony. Then again, you could leave politics to the politicos and just enjoy the music – Lance.

(Press release)
In the midst of one of the most bizarre presidential elections the country has ever seen, Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra do their part to Make America Great Again! On their debut recording, due out September 30 on Troubadour Jass Records, the trombonist/composer and his rollicking big band take back that tarnished slogan and run it up the flagpole of great American music, tracing its sounds from its African roots through the streets of New Orleans to the country as a whole.
 Under the direction of NEA Jazz Master Delfeayo Marsalis, the Uptown Jazz Orchestra adds some home-cooked seasoning to original material and jazz classics that pay homage to America’s great cultural traditions—blues, swing, groove and good old-fashioned Southern hospitality. Marsalis’ tongue-in-cheek appropriation of a certain blustery candidate’s motto hints at both the political and social consciousness of the album as well as its sense of barbed merriment and acid-tongued eloquence. Along the way, actor Wendell Pierce and Dirty Dozen Brass Band co-founder Roger Lewis join a host of the Crescent City’s finest young players to provide an infectious, finger-snapping state of the musical union.

In its combination of dark political protest and raucous, rump-shaking grooves, Make America Great Again! could only come from Marsalis’ native New Orleans, which is well known for meeting adversity with celebration and community. “That’s New Orleans, that’s jazz, that’s the story of the African descendant in America,” Marsalis says. “The African descendants have lived up to the American ideal more than any other ethnic group in the country. African-Americans helped to build the country, were brutalized and marginalized and still maintain an air of joy, sophistication and belief in American democracy.”

Nowhere is that sentiment more vividly expressed than in Marsalis’ opening arrangement of the “Star Spangled Banner,” which undergirds the national anthem with foreboding harmonies that suggest the work still to be done in order to live up to our own ideals. “America is and always has been the greatest country in the world,” Marsalis insists. “If we can live up to the ideals of what the Founding Fathers suggested that America is supposed to be, it will always be the greatest country in the world. America is great because of the inclusive nature of our original docOf course, repeated in stump speeches around the country, the words “Make America Great Again” have tended to mask intolerance and exclusion under the guise of patriotism, but Marsalis says that’s a dichotomy he’s gotten used to growing up in the South. “Living in New Orleans, there’s an everyday consciousness of the Confederacy and the despair that a lot of people have over their defeat. You still feel the ramifications of that. Folks are still fighting to keep the Confederate ideology alive, and that’s what we see in the constant incarceration and brutality towards our young men.”

That message is spelled out in the pointed monologue of the album’s title track, read with wry humor by Treme star Wendell Pierce, a New Orleans native and high school associate of Marsalis. The bandleader wrote the text matching the dry wit of the music, which the UJO improvised based on an audience member shouting out the title when prompted for a theme. That sort of spontaneous composition – a challenge for a small band, let alone a 20-piece ensemble – is just one highlight of the UJO’s regular Wednesday night residency at Snug Harbor, the world-renowned jazz club on bustling Frenchmen Street, where the band has been developing its sound and rapport since 2010.

“The identity of the band has been shaped into something that is completely unique and very much New Orleans,” Marsalis says. “It’s very important that we maintain that joy and exuberance that people equate with the city, but also maintain a direct connection to Africa. When I played with Elvin Jones and Max Roach and Art Blakey and Clark Terry, that was what those guys all told me: You’ve got to keep this sound going.”

In keeping with that mission, the repertoire on Make America Great Again! ranges from a New Orleans classic like Rebirth Brass Band’s “Put Your Right Foot Forward” or the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s “Snowball” – featuring UJO elder statesman Roger Lewis with a rousing baritone sax solo – to the deep swing of “Second Line,” Duke Ellington’s interpretation of that sound, or Benny Carter’s toe-tapping “Symphony in Riffs.” The band also marries that swing sound with a church influence, as on their Basie-influenced rendition of the standard “All of Me” with Kyle Roussel’s sanctified piano.

Marsalis’ originals deftly marry his profound message with infectious melodies, as on the sing-along funk of “Back to Africa,” which features New Orleans rapper Dee-1 expounding on those roots. “Dream on Robben” is a lilting elegy to Nelson Mandela, who the composer calls “a great man amongst great men.” Finally, “Living Free and Running Wild” looks back wistfully to the time when America was at its best, according to Marsalis – “in 1492, a week before Columbus arrived, with no buildings or cars, just open land. I wouldn’t trade the air conditioning and indoor plumbing, but how great must that have been?”

The leader takes the spotlight for “Skylark,” showcasing his moving, lyrical ballad playing, then lets the band show off its funky strut on Allen Toussaint’s classic “Java,” featuring Roderick “Reverend” Paulin’s tenor sax. They bring things to a close with a stirring arrangement of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.”

Despite the serious themes, Make America Great Again! is anything but heavy, offering a wonderfully upbeat and spirited collection of songs determined to make listeners move even as it asks them to think. As Marsalis says, “People have told me, ‘You play feel-good music,’ and I say, ‘Why would we play anything else?’ Don’t come check out the Uptown Jazz Orchestra if you feel like being depressed. We’re all about having a spiritual connection and understanding that we’re here to make the world a better place.”
" The words ‘poetry in motion’ seem more than adequate in describing the swing and power Delfeayo Marsalis provides." — Edward Blanco, All About Jazz


"[Marsalis] has a distinctly Ellingtonian temperament: sophisticated, yet earthy, with plenty of humor.” – Richard Scheinin, The Mercury News.

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