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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

CD Review: Jeff Richman - Sizzle.

(Review by Steve T).
Another fine, basic, fusion album by a guitarist and I've given up second-guessing which of them will sell, largely because I don't get how the whole download culture works.
This is his seventeenth solo album and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Hotwire from 2015. He's also recorded for TV and film and is in demand as a session musician.
To say his CV is impressive is a bit like saying the Pacific Ocean is wet. He studied privately with Pat Metheny, he's a graduate of Berkley, of a similar vintage to Stern, Frisell and DeMiola, and has played with a veritable who's who, including Ray Barretto, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira, Chico Hamilton, Deodato, Blood Sweat and Tears, Gerry Mulligan, Ronnie Laws, Ernie Watts, Harvey Mason, John Klemmer, Meshell Ndegeocello, Billy Cobham and the Yellowjackets. 
It's funky, a bit rocky at times, the playing is remarkable, particularly from the leader, but also by the guests bringing variety just ahead of it becoming samey. So we get a fine piano solo on Samaya, great flugel on Oracle and excellent tenor on Sweet and Hit Parade, which I doubt it will get anywhere near.
Comparisons with seventies fusion are inevitable and he plays mostly  solid body guitars - a Strat and a Tele - and comparisons could include Steve Khan, Eric Gale, Bill Connors, who preceded Al DeMiola in the Jazz-rock version of Return to Forever, and Carlos Santana, whose influence by and on Jazz has yet to be fully recognised.
There are more fusion credentials in the shape of a bass guitar solo during Jimmy Palm.
Just for You features the leader on a more classic Jazz guitar sound (which the premier player of the era - George Benson - stuck with throughout the seventies), presumably either his Gibson 335 or his Jim Hall, both of which feature during the album.
The period is also evoked by the inclusion of a Fender Rhodes on this track which seems to be emerging as a classic instrument along the lines of the Hammond B3 organ.
The album's been out a while and is recommended to guitar enthusiasts and fusionistas.
Steve T.
Jeff Richman (guitars); George Whitty (keyboards); Jimmy Haslip (bass);Vinnie Colaiuta (drums) + Jeff Beal (trumpet, flugel); Bob Mintzer (tenor sax); Taylor Eigsti (keyboards); Mitchel Forman (Fender Rhodes); Will Lee (bass); Gergo Borlai (drums). 

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