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Bebop Spoken There

Ambrose Akinmusire: “ I am certainly always aware of what the masses are doing. And when I see too many people going one way, I'm going another way - even when I don't know what's over that way". DownBeat, March, 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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Castillo Neuvo Trio + Conor Emery & His ‘Bones Band @ The Grove, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00. (£7.00. student).
Thu 21: Remi Banklyn + Chris Corcoran Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.50. Chicago blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime piano.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Nauta + Remy CB + Last Orders @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). Free.
Fri 22: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 22: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 23: Jambone @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:30pm. Free (ticketed). End of term performance in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 23: Red Kites Jazz @ Rowlands Gill Community Centre NE39 1JB. 7:00pm. Tickets: £12.00. (gibsidecommunityfarm@gmail.com). A ‘Build a Barn’ fundraiser. BYOB, tea/coffee available.
Sat 23: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00. + bf (book in person at venue - no booking fee!). Featuring pianist Martin Litton.
Sat 23: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 24: Luis Verde @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Verde (alto sax); Joe Steels (guitar); John Pope (double bass); John Hirst (drums). Alto sax brilliance!
Sun 24: Elsie Franklin @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Country blues. An International Guitar Foundation promotion.
Sun 24: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Las Vegas Live with the Rat Pack @ The Forum, Billingham.
Sun 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Otterburn Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sun 24: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Note start time - 7:00pm.
Sun 24: Bold Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

William Bell and the state of soul music. The SummerTyne Americana Festival, Sage Gateshead, July 22.

(Review by Steve T)
Without checking, this was much the same set as I reviewed at the Barbican last November. While that was at the London Jazz Festival, under the umbrella of Black Music, this was the SummerTyne Americana Festival, under the umbrella of American Roots Music, reflecting the changing times.
I'm old enough to remember the time when most people agreed with Muddy Waters, that the blues had a baby and called it rock and roll. Nowadays rockabilly is considered the most prominent strand of rock and roll and came from country and western.
Soul music emerged primarily from blues and gospel, but more recently the country element has become greatly exaggerated with the discovery, by the BBC, Mojo and writers like Guralnick, that many of the musicians, songwriters and producers were southern whites, even though virtually all of the artists, including all of the greats were black. 
White artists have done much better in Jazz than in any other serious Black Music: Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, Zawinul, John McLaughlin and Chick Corea to mention a few, but it's important to keep in mind that Louis Armstrong, Duke, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bird, Diz, Monk, Miles, Mingus, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Trane, Ornette and the vast majority were black.
Just seventeen years into the new millennium and it's already considered racist to refer to the C20th as the century of Black Music.
When Beatles T shirt in front of me sang along to the support band I'm a Soul Man, I responded in true gospel/soul fashion, No You’re Not!
At least he turned up. A few days out, I thought a team may come down from Scotland, a crew might travel up from Yorkshire, and surely a posse will make the journey across the Pennies from the North West heartland. Ah well, Teesside will be with us, Darlo, Bish, Chester-le-Street, Gatesheed, Toon, Northern Soul stronghold Aycliffe… William Bell ticks the northern soul, modern soul, rare groove, deep soul and club classic boxes, but maybe they all had more important vinyl festivals to go to.
At least Durham was there; well me, big bro, our mate Fen and my old rock mate Tony, who spread his wings to blues, soul, reggae and Jazz; and of course our much better halves.
If the soul people don't want him, the country and western people will have him. I keep having stabs at C & W and, while I don't think I'm allergic, they seem to need a name like Womack to come up with anything great. When I go to see Marty Stuart at Sage Gateshead in October, I promise not to sing I'm a C & W man, though I may wear an inappropriate T shirt.
By now our fearless editor will no doubt be pulling out hair in chunks, so about the concert.
Again, without checking, I think it was a slightly smaller band and certainly the real live Hammond organ was a miss. At nearly eighty, the quality of Bell’s voice is quite extraordinary, and without simply surrendering to the grain like some of his contemporaries; and he has fantastic microphone technique.
Standouts are inevitably the duet Private Number and blues classic Born Under a Bad Sign, but I also love the deep soul ballads, down to the bare bones of his voice, and this is what separates artists like Bell from singers like Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. While they have the grain covered, people like Bell are loaded with pain, but it's an optimistic, joyous jouissance that comes from gospel.
Knowing the set gave me an opportunity for a comfort/ bar break during a medley of Stand By me and Cupid that follows Trying to Love Two, another high pointbut an unexpected encore of one of Otis Redding’s better hits worked surprisingly well, even though I'd far rather listen to William Bell (and he presumably prefers to be alive than have a media myth based on a premature death), and unsurprisingly it went down a storm.
Artists like William Bell don't always make the news so we don't always know about them, but there can't be many of these giants left walking the earth, while cartoon repeats continue to dominate the waves.
Steve T.

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