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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

June

Sat 03: Newcastle Record Fair @ Northumbria University, Newcastle NE8 8SB. 10:00am-3:00pm. Admission: £2.00.
Sat 03: Pedigree Jazz Band @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 03: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Sue Ferris. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 03: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 03: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 04: Jam No. 18 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

CD Reviews: Frank Kohl Quartet – Rising Tide. Sandro Zerafa – More Light.

(Reviews by Steve T)
Rising Tide
Frank Kohl (guitar), Steve LaSpina (bass), Tommy Kohl (piano), Jon Doty (drums).
This is Kohl’s fourth album, the first being in 1981. He's a native of New York, where these sessions come from, but is generally based in Seattle. From the Beatles in the sixties his training and tastes progressed through Clapton, Hendrix and the blues to Wes Montgomery with Jimmy Smith, Pat Martino and Jim Hall, but it was seeing Tony Williams' Lifetime with Larry Young and John McLaughlin that made him realise anything was possible in Jazz.
Kohl studied at Berklee during its guitar golden age, while Schofield and Metheny were still students.
The album features eight tracks, including five originals, a live version of Rodgers and Hart’s My Romance and two by Victor Young, including a solo guitar piece to close the album.
Nothing much else to say except the songs are fine and the playing is excellent and the notes claim that  smooth exteriors and genuinely emotional interiors make for a difficult balance and listeners will decide whether he pulls this off. I think he probably does but my heckles don't automatically burst through my clothes when I read the 'S' word.
More Light
Sandro Zerafa (guitar), Yonathan Avishai (piano), Yoni Zelnik (bass), Lukmil Perez-Herrera (drums), David Prez (tenor sax).
Also a fourth album, Zerafa’s a native of Malta but now in Paris and he's absorbed Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, Grant Green and Peter Bernstein. It's a multi-national band from Israel, Cuba and France and there's a slight, subtle Brazilian flavour running through for the many people this appeals to nowadays.
The album features nine originals with added bonus of sax on three of them, which elevates it above the Kohl album but, without which I doubt I could separate them in a blindfold test.
The songs are fine and the playing is excellent and the notes claim a certain contemporary cool, far removed from frenzy and fury, but to these ears it may have benefitted from a little F and F.   
Lance, I gather, was impressed by Zerafa’s previous album
A Future of Music.
We often speculate whether music will stand up to repeated listening, but maybe we're approaching it all wrong.
Go back a generation and most people watched films once but played albums incessantly until the fillers made as much sense as the hits. Go back another and most people only knew the hits.
Nowadays it's common for people to watch films over and over again so maybe it's okay to listen to albums a couple of times, maybe pull of a couple of key tracks or come back to it in the future, and then move on to the next album, while retaining the genuinely great albums.
Steve T.

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