Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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

15260 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 279 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (March 29).

From This Moment On ...

March

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. Due to phenomenal demand, extra tickets released - gig now in the theatre. Book at: www.bishopaucklandtownhall.org.uk
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 01: Jambone @ Sage Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (book online). A YMP! event in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 01: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 04: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 04: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Bradley Johnston (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Seamus Blake Trio @ Black Swan Arts Centre. February 7

Seamus Blake (tenor); Ross Stanley (Hammond); James Maddren  (drums).
(Review by Lance/Photo courtesy of Ken Drew).
You like modern jazz? You bemoan the passing of the days when the great American jazzers used to fill the Corner House? You thought those days had gone?
Tonight, happy days were here again in the form of Canadian-born New Yorker,  tenor saxist Seamus Blake and his British cohorts Stanley and Maddren.
I got there early, not wanting to be perched in a corner behind a pillar.
"Hello Lance [Launce]" said JNE supremo PB. "First one".
As it was only 15 mins to the advertised kick-off I began to wonder...
Kick-off turned out to be 8:30 by which time there were enough souls in the Black Swan to resemble an audience.
Numbers aside, this was one great gig. Steve T reviewed the band at Southport Jazz Festival last weekend - I think he liked it but to use the band's announcement that the next number was The Beach Boys' God Only Knows as an excuse to go to the bar seemed strange - to me it was one of the most lyrical examples of ballad playing on a pop song that I've heard in recent years. Even the middle where Seamus was blowing a whole gang of notes a minute he still sounded lyrical. Steve, you should have hung back for that extra pint - I did.
Hard bop, Blue Note style modern, classic Coltrane/Shorter, this was the kind of tenor playing that nails it for me. Sure, there were a few abstract moments but not enough to hurt. Willow Weep For Me and a semi-'60s rock rhythm may, on the surface, seem like strange bedfellows but it worked beautifully, Blake's gutsy tenor solo should have been acknowledged with hoots and hollers of approval rather than the polite applause it received.
Stanley, cooking on those good old favourite appliances - Hammond and Leslie -  served up the ingredients a frontman needs. And, unlike some of his recent gigs, he used the pedals to full advantage.
If Stanley lit the fire then Maddren stirred it, he shook it, he juiced it, he goosed it, he unlocked it, and, if he'd have been a vicar, he'd have defrocked it!  Well, he ain't a vicar but, now that Seaman and co have left us and Kinsey probably wouldn't fancy the train journey up to Newcastle, Maddren's the high priest!
I have to say that I'm amazed that those who dig this brand of jazz weren't there.
I've got you guys on the list - your names will be published unless you can provide a sick note or a letter from your parents/children that you were in bed listening to Sonny Rollins or maybe ...
Lance.

6 comments :

Sid White (on F/b) said...

James Maddren the best British jazz drummer on the scene today in my humble opinion.

Steve T said...

You know my views on sacred cows and, as Bill Bruford said when he thought he'd joined a Jazz group but found himself in a group of people who like the Beach Boys - the Beach Boys?

Lance said...

No cows are sacred otherwise we'd all be vegetarians. One of the beauties of jazz is the musician's ability to work on the most unlikely material. I like to see musicians working on pop songs as opposed to their 'originals' which rarely are. The greats played the pop music of their day so why shouldn't later generations delve into the pops of their time?

Steve T said...

Beach Boys need neither the money nor the publicity. There are thousands of better records by better artists that don't get a look in cos they don't have a gimmick or an image to get them noticed by the clowns who run the media. Not something artists needed to concern themselves with before the huge explosion of television ownership in America in the fifties and over here in the sixties.
I'm all for artists stealing songs and melodies - the classical people did it with folk all the time and pop music is just world folk - but I think they should be a tad more imaginative. Bad Plus pick some really unusual stuff and do wonders with some real turkeys.

Weiting Huang (on F/b) said...

What do you think of Pete Cater? I think he is also good too, he plays more in big bands probably, i mean compare to you, I'm just talking from my limited prospective.

Sid White (on F/b) said...

James Maddren plays many styles from big band to progressive odd time material . He nails the lot a complete drummer and still a young man brilliant.

Blog Archive