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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.

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

CD Reviews: Latest ECM Releases

Pelagos:  Stefano Battaglia (piano, prepared piano).
Provenance: Bjorn Meyer (6 string electric and acoustic bass guitars).
Blue Maqams: Anouar Brahem (oud) with Dave Holland (double bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums) and Django Bates (piano).
(Review by Steve T)
When our leader told me he was going to send the latest ECM releases, I told him there was no need and I'd just send the reviews. I was joking but not entirely. Occasionally an ECM comes through and I can't believe how amazing it is, but generally, it's like listening to paint dry, and it's normally black and white between the two positions, with very little shade or nuance.
Unfortunately, there's very little here for the Jazz enthusiast, and I suspect two of them, and maybe all three will appeal only to ECM completists. In fact, I wish they would do them on a special price vinyl record only to reduce the vinyl mountain.
I generally try to play albums three times before I review them, but when I realised that Pelagos is a double album, I didn't even play the second CD (though I will). It's solo piano and I certainly couldn't describe it as Jazz, so I'm putting it under classical by default. There's 'tunes' in there and I've no doubt a listener would get to know them if they played them sufficient times, but I'm not sure who might want to do this and think it's just an exercise in self-indulgence.
Provenance is a single album so I managed to get all the way through it. In fact, I played it twice, but the second time was because I couldn't quite believe it the first time.
It's difficult to go into detail about either album (or much of the third) since it's so easy to lose any semblance of concentration and forget that you're even listening to music. 
Blue Maqams held out more promise with four musicians, two of whom are amongst the finest Jazz musicians on the planet.
The first five tracks all sound like they're about to burst into something, but never do. Couple of minutes into track six and it all seems to happen and is maintained for the rest of the set. It isn't brilliant, but it's fine and worth checking out for anyone who tends to like ECM releases, guitar type instruments, Holland and/or DeJohnette.
Quite by accident, I noticed the first two tracks total seventeen minutes, three, four and five make twenty-one minutes, six and seven total seventeen minutes and eight and nine, twenty minutes. It also turned out that Pelagos makes a tidy triple album, and Zappa he ain't. Provenance is actually too long for a single vinyl/ cassette album but not long enough to be a double, but it seems ECM are tailoring albums for the revitalised vinyl record market, so a compelling argument for my suggestion.
There's a popular idea in pop music that most double vinyl albums should have been single albums and, while I think they should have been singles ie 45s, there's some truth to it.
Blue Maqams would make a perfectly good single album, not essential but the last four tracks are fine, while the first four are pointless. The other two albums are just pointless.
Steve T

1 comment :

Steve T said...

Half way through second CD of Pelagos and it seems better than the first, but it's likely more to do with anticipation and expectation rather than anything else.

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