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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

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Fri 13: Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Two pianos, two pianists! SOLD OUT!
Fri 13: Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Dilutey Juice @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.00. adv..
Fri 13: Ray Stubbs R & B All-stars @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Classic blues.

Sat 14: Jeff Barnhart’s Silent Film Fest @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 14: Customs House Big Band w. Ruth Lambert @ St Paul’s Centre, St Paul’s Gardens, Spennymoor DL16 7LR. 7:00pm (6:45pm doors). Tickets £10.00. from the venue or tel: 01388 813404. A ‘BYOB’ event.
Sat 14: Emma Wilson @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00. Acoustic blues.
Sat 14: Rat Pack - Swingin’ at the Sands @ Billingham Forum. 7:30pm.

Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Panharmonia @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Swing Manouche @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: John Hallam with the James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert!

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

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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