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Bebop Spoken There

Orrin Evans: “Now, getting a teaching spot is the new record deal”. (DownBeat, November, 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

17502 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 776 of them this year alone and, so far, 14 this month (Nov. 5).

From This Moment On ...

November

Sat 09: Moscow Drug Club @ Hamsterley Village Hall, Co. Durham DL13 3QF. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sat 09: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 10: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘second Sunday in the month’ residency.
Sun 10: Panharmonia @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £6.00.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Moscow Drug Club @ Lesbury Village Hall, nr. Alnwick NE66 3PP. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sun 10: SH#RP Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Graham Hardy’s Eclectic Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 12: Matthew Forster Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.
Tue 12: Phil’s Elastic Band @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Free, but ticketed, book online.

Wed 13: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 13: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 13: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 13: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: corto.alto @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 7:45pm (doors 7:00pm). £14.00. + bf.

Thu 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Faye MacCalman & John Pope @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 14: Student Performances @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 4:00pm. Inc. Olly Styles (saxophone).
Thu 14: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 14: John Stowell & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Top class US/UK guitar duo!
Thu 14: King Bees @ The Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Superb Chicago blues band. Note, Struggle Buggy will no longer be appearing.
Thu 14: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Jeremy McMurray (keys); Kevin Eland (trumpet); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Adrian Beadnell (bass).

Fri 15: Nicola Farnon Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 15: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 15: Tim Kliphuis Trio @ Morpeth Methodist Church, Morpeth NE61 1HU. 7:30pm. £18.00.; £3.00. student (over 18); Free 18 or under. A Morpeth Music Society event. Kliphuis (violin), Nigel Clark (guitar), Roy Percy (double bass).
Fri 15: Lindsay Hannon’s Blues Trio @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £12.00. + bf.
Fri 15: Groovetrain @ The Exchange 1856, North Shields. 7:00pm. £22.50. + bf. Groovetrain’s ‘Big Night Out’.

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

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Film review: La La Land

(Review by Russell)
A fifties Technicolor look to it, a ‘Golden Age’ Hollywood musical soundtrack, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land is nailed-on to triumph at this year’ Oscars. Co-stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are a perfect match: jazz pianist Sebastian and aspiring Hollywood star Mia fall in love, dreaming of fame and fortune. Sebastian plays piano in LA’s cocktail lounges, longing to play jazz, to run a jazz club. In between auditions Mia works in a diner, despairing of ever getting a break.
As their romance blossoms, Mia tells Sebastian she hates jazz. Our pianist determines to take Mia to a jazz club – hearing the music live she’ll ‘get it’, won’t she? Sometime later Mia ventures: Kenny G? Sebastian tears his hair out!
A long-time musician friend makes Sebastian a $1000 a week offer to join his successful – though not quite jazz – band. Money talks, they tour the world. Mia struggles to make ends meet until finally, an audition wins her a starring role. Fame and fortune is hers. The couple split up. Five years later in a twist of fate, their paths cross – it’s too late, surely, for a reunion?
The jazz in La La Land is great, but, there isn’t much of it. Whiplash it ain’t. But as a film, Chazelle’s La La Land knocks spots off Whiplash.
Russell.            

13 comments :

Steven T said...

Thought you were resting after your sterling run in the lead up to X Mas, with no lapse in the usual high quality, but it seems you've been in La La Land.
I too reckoned nowt to Whiplash and not just the Buddy Rich worship which should be restricted to the rock drummers who saw him on the Ed Sullivan Show. There's only one Gene Krupa, one Kenny Clark, one Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham.
However, I'm always sceptical about a film(or anything else)where the whole of the media close ranks because they always seem to turn out to be mediocre or rubbish.
It's a badly kept secret that the Sound of Music changed my life and I've never had any interest in the charts since. I saw it 4 times during a wet holiday in Whitley Bay as a six year old in 1968 - nothing to do with Lisl. But apart from being great films, stuff like King and I, My Fair Lady and West Side Story also had great singers like Julie Andrews and Gertrude Lawrence and great songs by the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein and Bernstein.
The trend now seems to be towards people who have trained as actors, singers and dancers, like soapstars and general TV personalities in this country. And nobody seems to be talking about the music in La La Land.
Years ago I saw Miss Saigon and just found it boring until the helicopter turned up. For that reason I bought a cassette of Les Miserables ahead of seeing it and it made a huge difference, not just the several songs I really liked, but because I was familiar with the rest.
On the basis that I'd take more notice of Russell than anybody in the BBC etc, what's the word on the music in La La Land.

Lance said...

I'm looking forward to seeing La La Land although I seem to be the only one who did enjoy Whiplash - apart from those who nominated it for the Academy Awards.
It must have been the monsoon season in Whitley Bay to have watched The Sound of Music 4 times - once was enough for me!
I did see Buddy Rich 4 times. Once at Ronnie's, once at the Dominion Theatre and twice at the City Hall although I didn't see him on the Ed Sullivan Show.
I saw Gene Krupa with JATP and wasn't impressed, nor did Elvin Jones float my boat - Kenny Clarke did - Buddy remains the greatest drummer I've ever heard live.

Steve T said...

I'd probably put the Academy with the BBC; I didn't hate Whiplash but I don't think it lived up to the hype.
Perhaps you weren't the correct age for the appeals of the lovely Lisl. Is that a 'polite' way of putting it?
I still think Sound of Mucous is the best of the musicals, certainly from that period. West Side Story is considered cooler but it's a bit like saying E(ast) 17 were cooler than Take That.
Cobham is the best drummer I ever heard live, with Mahavishnu in 73. I've seen him twice since but there was no comparison. John, at the same gig, was the best guitarist I ever saw (by a mile). I've seen him 3 times since and no comparison.

Lance said...

Musicals? Pal Joey and Guys and Dolls. Drummers? Well, after Buddy, Art Blakey and Joe Morello were the guys although let's not forget Ronnie Stephenson from South Shields.
East 17 and Take That are just names to me.

Bruce Bax (on F/b) said...

Spoiler in that review! For those that want to see it without knowing too much.

Lance said...

No more than in the advance publicity and paper media reviews.

Bruce Bax (on F/b) said...

Some of us avoid all of that stuff. Just pointing it out for those wanting to see the film knowing as little as possible about how the plot unwinds.

Steve T said...

You've just broken thousands of female thirty something hearts. Take That were the (allegedly) squeaky clean pretty boys while E17 were (allegedly)the edgier, uglier underbelly(they changed their name after boasting they took ecstasy). The point was neither were/are cool.

Don't think I've heard of Pal Joey so it's going in the basket.

Liz said...

never heard of Pal Joey? on my,you have a treat in store Steve!

Lance said...

PS: I forgot to Add Kiss Me Kate, An American in Paris and.. perm any from a 100 plus!

Steve T said...

My mistake, I did know Pal Joey. I think of SinAtra films as something else; like they're . SinAtra films before they're musicals.

Liz said...

good point Steve, I guess in that context, it is not a true musical!

Anonymous said...

From Ann Alex, To get back to La La Land, I enjoyed it today but don't know if it deserves Oscars. I also liked Whiplash, and don't think you can fairly compare the 2 films. Whiplash had far more jazz, and was a story about musical sadism; La La land is a musical love story with a fascinating ending which I don't believe has been given away by anything in any of these comments.

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