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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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio + Abbie Finn @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

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. SOLD OUT!
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: 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.

Friday, July 14, 2017

Benny Benack III - A guy worth checking out.

(After reading this press release of Benny Benack III, I was curious to discover more - and I'm pleased that I did. Singing or blowing trumpet this young man proves that all of the young talents don't come out of Newcastle. Some even come from across the pond in New York. Check him out here. - Lance.)
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(Press release)
Benny Benack III, a young and multi-talented Pittsburgh native and denizen of the New York jazz scene. He is never one to limit himself. He is both an affable and expressive jazz singer and a formidable, modern-minded trumpeter, and these elements of his musical self are deeply and effortlessly intertwined. On One of a Kind, his debut release, Benack also reveals himself to be a wry and expressive songwriter and lyricist, bringing his boundless musical gifts together in a program that’s steeped in tradition but every bit as restlessly individual as his album title suggests.
Benack teams with two players he calls his “musical brothers,” pianist Emmet Cohen and bassist Alex Claffy, as well as a key mentor, drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. “Ulysses was really the first musician that took me under his wing and gave me a shot and brought me on the road,” Benack says. “To have him here on my first album means the world.” Saxophonist Joel Frahm and guitarist Yotam Silberstein, masters on their respective instruments, make vital contributions as well.
Presenting eight Benack originals (four vocal, four instrumental), one by Emmet Cohen, vibrant covers of Burt Bacharach and Harry Warren/Al Dubin classics, and a closing killer novelty song by Eddie Jefferson, Benack paints a self-portrait in sound, honoring a legacy that stretches back to Benny Benack, Sr., his trumpeter/bandleader grandfather. Having grown up playing gigs with his father Benny, Jr., and absorbing influences from his musical theater vocalist mother Claudia, Benny III became the kind of player, writer and interpreter we hear today on One of a Kind: “I gravitated first to the legends of Tin Pan Alley. I find myself identifying not only with their timeless harmonic and melodic sensibilities but also the whimsical charms of their musings on romance and melancholy. I would love for my songs to capture the essence of that magical Golden Era.”
Benack continues: “The lyric aspect of my composing didn’t develop until much later. As I became more comfortable with my voice maturing into a focal point, it was only natural that I would gain inspiration to write from my personal experiences. For that to occur I needed a certain amount of romance and heartbreak, along with successes and setbacks. When those came to be, I found the music and words flowing out of me faster than I could write them down.”

The history of singing trumpeters goes back of course to the very foundation of jazz, which is Louis Armstrong. It goes forward to encompass Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Kenny Dorham and more. “Anyone who steps onstage and sings while holding a trumpet owes a debt to all of them,” says Benack. “Because the trumpet is such an intimately vocal instrument, I believe it attracts musicians who hold lyricism and humanity in the highest regard. While my singing style is more out of the classic crooner continuum of Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Harry Connick, Jr., I relate the most to people like Dizzy and Louis, who showed the world that virtuosity and artistry didn’t have to be packaged in a demure and ‘serious’ way, that it was perfectly OK to laugh and smile while playing on the highest level.”

That upbeat sentiment is there from the first bars of the robust mid-tempo swing opener and title track “One of a Kind.” It’s a song about youthful love and exuberance, says Benack, and as a vocal-and-trumpet number it’s “the perfect summation of who I am as an artist.” Then after the Jobim-inspired, guitar-driven “Kiss Me Slowly” comes the tightly orchestrated and drum-centric “I Found You,” followed by Cohen’s “You Already Know,” which the pianist wrote with Benack in mind “as a piece that would feature my strengths: fiery excitement, whirring harmony & spirited fun!”
Benack recalls “Looking for Love” as “the first ballad I ever wrote,” while the fiery hard-bop of “Jumpstart” is his “homage to the ‘Young Lion’ movement of the ’90s, when my contemporary trumpet heroes burst onto the scene. I tried to imagine Nicholas Payton or Roy Hargrove slicing through these chord changes, and I hope I did them justice.”

Silberstein returns on acoustic guitar in fine form for the romantic Latin instrumental “When Midnight Comes.” Benack plays flugelhorn, joined by Frahm on soprano, on the Ahmad Jamal-inspired “Londontowne,” while “Guh Guh Guh” (with Frahm on tenor) is a suitably frenetic set-closer featuring the full band. “The title comes from how I hear the song’s first three notes,” says Benack. “The pace builds and builds until the ending explodes like a comet in flight….”

The remarkable arrangements of “Close to You” and “I Only Have Eyes for You” are full of surprises and a fun, grooving vibe that evokes the best of the historical intermingling of jazz and pop. And “Benny’s from Heaven,” which Benack first heard James Moody sing at a jazz camp years ago, was destined to become an irreverent staple in his repertoire. “After Eddie Jefferson’s lyrics, I composed the vocalese myself with my own solo as a framework, trying to channel the powers of such a wordsmith.”
Throughout One of a Kind, on the horn and the mic, Benack brings it all together with stirring swing and a unity of aesthetic intent, in the spirit of his role models. “My ultimate aspiration,” he says, “is to have each side of my artistry complement the other, to give my voice and trumpet space to shine.” And shine they do.
For further information, visit: www.bennybenackjazz.com
CD release show:
September 21st, 2017 at Birdland Jazz Club in New York City
6pm performance/ Doors open at 5PM
Birdland Jazz Club
315 West 44th St.
New York, NY 10036

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