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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
The 10: Classic Swing @ Carlisle Rugby Club, Warwick Rd., Carlisle. 8:30pm. £9.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: The Jazz Quartet + Stratosphonic @ Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £15.00. A Rotary Club of Hexham event. The Jazz Quartet (Jude Murphy & co), Stratosphonic (blues/rock). CANCELLED!
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 11: Mo Scott Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 12: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Michael Woods @ Victoria Tunnel, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv.). Country blues guitar & vocals.
Sat 12: Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.28, £11.16, £9.04. A two-track recording launch gig.
Sat 12: Stuart Turner @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rockabilly, rhythm & blues etc. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 12: Lapwing Jazz Trio @ The Ship Inn, Low Newton. 8:00pm. Free. New trio: Paula Whitty, Richard Herdman, Jude Murphy.

Sun 13: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Emma Wilson @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 13: Catfish Keith @ The Cluny. 7:00pm. Country blues.
Sun 13: Cath Stephens & Paul Grainger @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Stephens & Grainger, one third of a triple bill.
Sun 13: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 14: Black is the Color of My Voice @ Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by Nina Simone, performed by Nicholle Cherrie.

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano), Paul Grainger (double bass), Bailey Rudd (drums).

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, May 31, 2017

CD Review: Tomoko Omura - Post Bop Gypsies

Tomoko Omura (5 string violin); Alex Goodman (guitar); George Delancey (bass).
(Review by Lance).
I've always had an affinity with jazz violin, perhaps it was because my first efforts at making music were on a cut price Strad or, more likely, it was when I first heard Stephane Grappelli (or Grappelly as he called himself then). To this day I love the gypsy jazz sound as personified by local exponent Emma Fisk. However, I also love more modern sounds and, somehow, Jean-Luc Ponty never quite cut it for me.
Enter Tomoko Omura, Berklee graduate, the first violinist to receive the prestigious Roy Haynes Award and, now, with two previous albums to her name, this latest release.
Using a 5 stringed instrument, the additional C string enables the instrument to drop down into viola territory making it a very versatile instrument indeed.
The album's an attempt (successful) to combine gypsy jazz and bebop.
Parker's Relaxin' at Camarillo and Monk's Four in One take us down 52nd St. and it's more than a nostalgia trip - the flattened fifth lives!
Smile, written by no less a person than Charlie Chaplin, is given a fairly straight interpretation.
JR - nothing to do with Dallas - inspired by the lively sounds you hear in Japanese railway stations. This one is even boppier than the earlier bop anthems and makes me wish the Metro, or even the Orient Express had a branch line to Tokyo! An Omura original.
Another original by the violinist is The Boy From Boylston, dedicated to her husband Glenn Zaleski.
The music of Warne Marsh doesn't, regrettably, turn up very often these days which is a shame. Marsh was very much underrated both as a player and as an individual influence. Post-bop but not hard bop; cool but neither east coast nor west coast cool.
He was, simply, Warne Marsh.
That Omura should choose Marsh’s Background Music for her album says much for her perception and much for his music’s longevity.
We move into heavier waters for Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 Aria. Still compelling music. Maybe even more so as, much as we enjoyed the previous, here we were into a more intense area, a different land. That additional C string came well into play at the end.
Arabesque by Debussy kept us in a classical vein. Goodman, playing one of his many fine solos, may have given the late composer a twitch as he reposed in Paris’ Cimetiere de Montrouge but not enough for him to turn over. Claude may have even mouthed tres bon.
From Debussy to a jazz romantic – Lionel Hampton. Hampton may not have always been a balladeer but when he was there were few better. Midnight Sun enables Omura to build on those qualities.
Back to bebop for the final track – Wee by Denzil Best (was it also known as Allen’s Alley?)
And a great finale. Omura is a fine player and, in Goodman and Delancey, she couldn’t have had better support.
Lance
Available July 7 via usual outlets.

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