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Bebop Spoken There

Wendell Brunious: "Because the blues is not 1,4 and 5 or 1,4,5,2,1. You could wake up with a flat tyre or a headache this morning, that's the blues, man" - (DownBeat, Oct. 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

15878 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 885 of them this year alone and, so far, 83 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums). CANCELLED!

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Paul Skerritt @ Vespa Italian Bar & Steakhouse, Primrose Hill, Jarrow. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 483 3355.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Sound the Trumpets @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 05: Hot Club du Nord @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00. POSTPONED!
Thu 05: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Tommy Bentz Trio + Mark Croft Duo + George Shovlin & George Lamb @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Harbour View Speakeasy's USA blues double bill + Shovlin & Lamb!
Thu 05: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 06: Alcyona Mick @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 2:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Balo @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Fri 06: Lexer/Mayes/Noble + Semay Wu + Miman @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Vault, Hexham. 7:30pm. £20.00. Book in advance. Moreno with Alan Law, Paul Grainger & John Bradford.
Fri 06: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. 'Celebrating Oscar'.
Fri 06: Nu Brass Sounds: Big Brass Bash @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: TBC @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 07: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 10:15am. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Hot Club du Nord @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 07: Bugge & Niccols + Moore & Fairhall @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - All the Things You Are. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 07: Rie Nakajima @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Sat 07: Samuel Blaser Trio + Toxvaerd & Zeeberg + Muramatsu & Welch @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 08: Zoë Gilby Quintet + Ubunye @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Line-up inc. Tony Kofi. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 08: Tommy Bentz Band @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. USA blues band.

Monday, July 31, 2017

CD Review: Dave O'Higgins - It's Always 9.30 in Zog.

Dave O'Higgins (tenor/soprano); Graham Harvey (piano/Rhodes); Geoff Gascoyne (bass); Sebastiaan De Krom (drums).
(Review by Lance).
I read the extract below from the notes by Dave O'Higgins and I knew instantly that I was going to like this CD before the needle hit the groove (hypothetically speaking).
“We’ve played a repertoire comprising contrafacts and standards mainly up until now when I decided it was high time to get writing some new original material for these guys I’ve got to know musically and socially well in that time. We're still swinging and playing changes, but there's more trust and swagger to it now - it's always a thrill everytime we play."
Amen!
The title track lives up to expectations. The back cover is set out like a Blue Note sleeve and the music is too - Art Blakey springs to mind. Space precludes me from explaining the title. Suffice to say it's one that Sun Ra may have given his celestial blessing to.
More contemporary tenor swing on The Adventures of Liile Peepsie, the second of eight O'Higgins originals. This is surely a golden age of British tenor sax players and Dave is right up there with them. Likewise, Harvey, Gascoyne and De Krom who combine with O'Higgins to make this as tight a quartet as you'll find whilst, paradoxically, retaining the looseness and freedom that, in the right hands, equate to perfection.
Alien With Extraordinary Ability - where does he get the titles from? - refers to a work visa he had to obtain to get into America to play with the Brubecks. The extraordinary ability could also apply to his soaring soprano technique more akin to a clarinet's fluency. Good skin- work from De Krom.
Nothing to Lose has a Basie/Hefti inspired head. Harvey's piano, less sparse than Basie's, is a lesson in chording a solo, Gascoyne too has his say, as does De Krom whilst O'Higgins hints at Frank Foster without losing his own identity.
Brixton, the first non-original, is by Brazilian accordion virtuoso Chico Chagas who composed it with Dave specifically in mind. A gentle Latin piece. Harvey brings the Fender Rhodes into play, De Krom and Gascoyne are sympathetic and the tenor sax pursues the road Stan Getz charted and maybe even passes him along the way.
Timelessness by Bheki Mseleku - a tenor tour de force and, given the composer, an impossible piano solo!
Three more originals - Morpheus; One For Big G (soprano swings - is this the best soprano solo I've ever heard? It may well be, piano plays like nobody's business, Big G on  bass, I'm assuming 'tis Mr Gascoyne whom Dave has honoured in the title and not Kenny G, lives up to the billing  before the funky New Resolution and some super sop on Humble Origins lead us to a couple of GASsers - Autumn Serenade and Easy Living.
The former, as good a tune as any of the more familiar Autumn songs, sees O'Higgins stretch out without losing balance.
Easy Living is simply beautiful. Ballad playing at its best. I first heard this played by Wardell Gray then later by Stan Getz. This version is up there with them.
Dave O'Higgins said in the quote at the start of this post "It's always a thrill everytime we play"
Well Dave, let me tell you that it's always a thrill when we listen!
Of course, as ever, there's a downside...
The quartet tour the length and breadth of the land ' twixt now and Christmas. 33 gigs starting at Leeds on September 2 and culminating at the 606 club on December 9. You've got it in one! The Leeds gig and Edinburgh on November 22 are as near as it gets to Tyneside.
Samples.
Lance.
PS: Where's Clitheroe? (November 24).
Dave O'Higgins - It's Always 9.30 in Zog is released September 8 on Whirlwind Records JVGO18CD.
Album Launch is at Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho on September 12.

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