Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Kelly Sill: "Just because everyone is playing through the changes in the same time doesn't mean they're actually playing together" - (JazzTimes March/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 ...

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.

Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations. Feat. John Pope, Marie Shreer, John Garner.
Thu 06: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 06: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Note earlier start time.

Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 07: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 07: Finntet + Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.
Fri 07: TBA @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Blind Pig Blues Club.

Monday, June 19, 2017

De’Sean Jones & Knomadik @ Dacre Hall, Lanercost – June 16

De’Sean Jones (tenor); Jamie Murray (drums); Mikele Montoli (bass); Russell Gelman-Sheehan (guitar); Chase Jackson (vibes) + Jack Moore (alto).
(Review by David Gosling)
Detroit’s young saxophone titan swept into Cumbria, via three London gigs and a night at Preston’s New Continental, to play a storming gig in rural Lanercost.
Lanercost had secured the appearance of De’Sean Jones and his Knomadik band via a previous appearance De’Sean made in 2014 whilst touring the northwest with pianist Greg Spero.                      
“I remembered this charismatic ancient venue and felt that it would be good to come back and play it with my own band this time”, said Jones.
How to describe De’Sean Jones and his music is tricky but Jazz fusion, in the normal understanding of the genre, it is not. It’s certainly jazz, and if you add in funk, urban and a dash of hip-hop then maybe you are getting closer to the mark. At least that’s what I was hearing.
Knomadik (although De’Seans baseball cap spells it KNMDK) seems a fitting title as young musicians encountered by De’Sean, as he tours the world, are then incorporated into the as and when a location suits. For the Dacre Hall gig we had De’Sean Jones tenor sax, Jamie Murray from London on drums, Mikele Montolli from Italy on bass, Russell Gelman-Sheehan from Philadelphia on guitar, and on vibraphone. from Los Angeles, Chase Jackson.
Counting in the first number with a semi beatbox/rap introduction De’Sean and the band launched into a funked up version of Miles Davis’ Tutu which must have lasted at least 10 minutes as it moved seamlessly from one phase to another. The excellent Chase Jackson on vibraphone gently underpinning the rhythms in a style that would be blown away in the following numbers as his exuberant percussive playing came to the fore.
The ensuing tunes were all taken from De’Sean’s 2015 album Knomadik Reverence (Detroit Music Factory DMF2007) with the one exception being when, in true pied piper/nomadic style, the tenor sax man recalled playing with a young man in 2014, who he had spotted in the audience, and invited him up onto the stage to play what he termed ‘some Detroit Funk’. Up stepped 15-year-old Jack Moore from Cockermouth, who had so impressed everyone when Greg Spero had called him up to the bandstand at the same venue in 2014, to perform alongside De’Sean on alto sax. After a 10 second conversation between the two the band launched into a scorching number that allowed both saxophones ample room to show their improvisational skills. Hard blowing pyrotechnics were the order of the day with young Jack more than holding his own against the Detroit Lion. A performance that shows promise of much greater things to come from young Jack Moore.
As for De’Sean Jones, I had described him as ‘a force of nature’ in the pre-concert publicity but on this showing, I had clearly underestimated him.

The evening opened with local sax-girl Roz Sluman, who also played with De’Sean and the Greg Spero Quartet in 2014, and her Ol’ Bones band playing a jazz fusion set covering tunes by Chic Corea, David Sanbourn, Dave Grusin and Spyra Gyra to name but a few. Alongside Roz was Paul Maclachlan on bass, Kenny Reed on drums, Brian Melville on keyboards and Johnny Miller on guitar and their lively set proved the perfect introduction for what was to come.
David Gosling

No comments :

Blog Archive