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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

17372 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 656 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (Sept. 17).

From This Moment On ...

September

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 1:00-2:45pm. Free.
Sat 21: Vieux Carré Hot Four @ The Beehive, Hartley Lane, Earsdon Whitley Bay NE25 0SZ. 4:30pm-6:30pm.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Northumberland Club, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Sat 21: Jude Murphy & Alan Law @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free.
Sun 22: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Richard Herdman @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: Remy CB Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Remi, 2024 Newcastle Uni graduate, superb soul/blues voice!

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Paul Booth with the Paul Edis Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert! SOLD OUT!

Tue 24: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv. from Tully’s of Rothbury). Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 24: Sarah Gillespie @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £16.50. Duo performance with Chris Montague.

Wed 25: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 25: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 25: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 25: Moonlight Serenade Orchestra UK: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Middlesbrough Theatre. 7:30pm.

Thu 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 26: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Contemporary Jazz & the Piano’.
Thu 26: The New 58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 26: Jo Harrop & Friends @ Hexham Abbey. 8:00pm. ‘An Evening with Jo Harrop & Friends’. A Hexham Abbey Festival of Music & Arts event. £20.00., £5.00. child/student.
Thu 26: Neil Yates & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 26: Loco House Band @ Bar Loco, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 26: Tees Hot Club @ Dorma’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Mark Toomey, Neil Brodie, Graham Thompson, Adrian Beadnell.

Sunday, July 02, 2017

CD Review: Thelonious Monk Quintet - Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960.

Thelonious Monk (piano); Charlie Rouse, Barney Wilen (tenors); Sam Jones (bass); Art Taylor (drums).
(Review by Lance).
A previously unreleased double album by Monk is quite an event. Not that some of the music hasn't had previous exposure - 30 minutes of it provided the soundtrack for Roger Vadim's 1960 movie Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960. The remaining 45 minutes comprise alternate takes and extended versions of the ones used in the film. Familiar Monk tunes but, no less interesting because of that.
The two tenor front-line numbers gave them a different dimension. Rouse's easily identifiable, angular lines contrasting with Wilen's more rounded but less virile sound. Rouse, who knew Monk's music better than anyone bar the great man himself, was always at home with the often unexpected twists and turns conjured up by the composer. Frenchman Wilen, 22 at the time, also coped well on the 4 tracks he appears on whilst Jones, later to become a linchpin of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet and Taylor, one of the most prolific drummers of the period, rounded it off perfectly - that is, if any Monk session could be described as being rounded off!
Rhythm-a-Ning (2 takes); Crepuscule with Nellie (2); Six in One; Well You Needn't (2); Pannonica ( 2 solo piano/1 quartet/1 quintet); Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are; We'll Understand it Better By and By; Light Blue (2 inc. a segment of rehearsing the rhythm Monk wanted).
Monk didn't write anything specifically for the film. Instead, he played the above pieces which invariably ran over the timing allotted to coordinate with the on-screen events and it was left to the producers to edit the music to fit. We get both versions here.
It's absolutely essential for any Monk fans and well worth a listen for any modern jazz fans of the era.
As a bonus, let me say that the 56-page booklet accompanying the discs is probably the most informative booklet I've seen in recent years - and it's readable!
Articles by Alain Tercinet, Robin D.G. Kelley and Brian Priestley coupled with many photos - both black and white and colour -, scribbled notes from the Nola Penthouse Sound Studios in New York (111 W. 57th St.) where the music was recorded on July 27, 1959, combine to make this a very memorable and collectable album which is also available on a 2 LP vinyl package.
All I need to do now is watch the film...Highly recommended.
Lance.

1 comment :

Russell said...

Anthony Troon's five star review of Monk's album in the July issue of Jazz Journal concurs with your review. Troon concludes 'unmissable'.

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