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Bebop Spoken There

Delfeayo Marsalis: "Slide Hampton once told me that it's not always the person that is playing the highest or playing the fastest that's making the greatest impact." - (DownBeat March 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

15229 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 248 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (March 20).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 21: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 21: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Jacob Egglestone (guitar); Jamie Watkins (bass guitar); Bailey Rudd (drums).

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Traveller's Rest, Cockerton. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public). Note change of venue - this week only.
Wed 22: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Thu 23: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Bar Loco, Newcasatle. From 6:30pm 'til late. Free. Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra jam session. All welcome (students & non-students).
Thu 23: Kerrin Tatman + John Garner & John Pope @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 23: Sunna Gunnlaugs & Julia Hülsmann @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm. A two-piano gig. A Sage Gateshead-JNE promotion.
Thu 23: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano.
Thu 23: Sleep Suppressor @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00., £8.00. adv. Upstairs.
Thu 23: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: FILM: Mo' Better Blues @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Fri 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Scarth Hall, Staindrop, Co. Durham. 8:00pm. £10.00.
Fri 24: Archipelago + Bulbils @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 25: Vermont Big Band @ Walker Community Centre, Walker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Fundraiser for Benfield Juniours Football Club. Hot food available, BYOB.
Sat 25: John Logan & Friends @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rat Pack, Motown etc. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

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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