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Bebop Spoken There

Steve Fishwick: “I can’t get behind the attitude that new is always somehow better than old” - Jazz Journal, April 15, 2019,

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...

Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

November

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). Tickets: £25.00. inc. buffet. A Gatsby themed evening.
Thu 30: Jools Holland's R & B Orchestra @ Newcastle City Hall. 7:30pm.
Thu 30: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. Guest band night: Mark Toomey Quintet (Mark Toomey, sax; Paul Donnelly, guitar; Jeremy McMurray, keys; Peter Ayton, bass; Mark Robertson, drums). 9:00pm.

December
Fri 01: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 01: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 01: Paul Skerritt @ All Saints’ Church, Eastgate, Co. Durham. 7:00pm. Xmas Tree Fest.
Fri 01: Alligator Gumbo @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 01: Nu Sound Brass @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 01: Struggle Buggy w. Jim Murray @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 02: Paula Jackman's Jazz Masters @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 02: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 02: Abbie Finn Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm.
Sat 02: Tenement Jazz Band @ John Marley Centre, Newcastle. Swing Tyne Winter Social. £8.00. + bf. Advance purchase only, no admission at the door. BYOB. Lindy hop workshop from 11:00am. £39.00.
Sat 02: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Masham, Hartburn Village, Stockton. 7:00pm. Feat. Noel Dennis.
Sat 02: Classic Swing @ The Nuthatch, 9 - 11 Bedford St, Middlesbrough TS1 2LL. 7:00-9:00pm. Classic Swing in trio format.
Sat 02: Paul Skerritt w. Danny Miller Big Band @ Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm.
Sat 02: Vermont Big Band @ Whitley Bay FC. 7:30pm. £10.00. (inc. hot buffet). Tickets available from WBFC’s Seahorse pub club house.
Sat 02: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Ponteland Social Club, Northumberland. 7:30pm. £18.00 (inc. stotties & soup supper). A fundraiser for Hexham Constituency Labour Party.
Sat 02: Tom Remon & Laurence Harrison @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. Xmas party night inc. buffet & special raffle. £3.00.
Sat 02: Groovetrain @ The Unionist Club, Laygate, South Shields. 9:00pm.

Sun 03: The Central Bar Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. The Central Bar Quartet plays Lou Donaldson’s Gravy Train. Featuring Jamie Toms.
Sun 03: Paul Skerritt @ Smith’s Arms, Carlton, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:00pm.
Sun 03: Johnny Hunter Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 03: Jam session @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.

Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 04: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ People’s Kitchen, Bath Lane, Newcastle. From 5:30pm. On-street gig supporting the work of the People’s Kitchen charity. Wrap up warm! Donate!
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio w Lindsay Hannon @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Mon 04: Durham University Jazz Orchestra + Durham University Big Band @ Durham Castle DH1 3RW. 8:30pm. £6.00.; £5.00. concs; £4.00. DSM. ‘Jazzy Christmas’.

Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ All Saints Church, Cleadon. 7:00pm. Concert in the church hall. BYOB.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Sid White. The best free show in town!

Sunday, November 26, 2017

John McLaughlin and the Fourth Dimension + the James Herring Band, play the music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Vic Theatre, Chicago USA, November 18

John McLaughlin (guitars), Gary Husband (keyboards, drums), Etienne M'bappe (bass, vocals), Ranjit Barot (drums, vocals).
(Review by Steve T)
If you read any of the growing literature about John McLaughlin, the Mahavishnu Orchestra (MO) and Jazz/Rock/Fusion, there are three constants among those who saw the original band: that this was a musician of staggering intensity and virtuosity, that people thought it was all him - we'd heard electrified violins and moogs but never played like this - and that their lives were changed by the experience.
A friend of mine always said the classic rock bands I saw as a ten/eleven/twelve-year-old must have gone over my head, but I was familiar and comfortable with music by all of them, except the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I already knew the media and the charts weren't for me, but as I stared, open-mouthed in disbelief, anything became possible, as John might say, between nothingness and eternity.
This is to be his farewell tour of America, I suspect with his love of all things India, due to Trump's policy towards 'foreigners'. He's been tentatively dipping back into the MO back catalogue in recent years but this is the first time he's done it lock, stock and...
Jimmy Herring came on first with a busy drummer - you ain't gonna get far doing Billy Cobham and Narada Michael Walden if you're not, a funkin' bass player and a keyboard player mixing synths and piano with real Hammond and a close proximity Fender Rhodes.
I only definitely recognised one piece which I thought may have been Weather Report, but it's likely he opened with John McLaughlin from Bitches Brew though I haven't heard it for many years. They did fifty-five minutes and he never spoke. 
Quick change around and the Fourth Dimension occupied the other side of the stage. This set was more recognisably Mahavishnu, plus a tribute to Paco de Lucia, the only other constant in his guitar trios and the only other guitarist who may have been his equal, entitled El Hombre Que Sabia (the Man who Knew),  
Lila's Dance from Visions of the Emerald Beyond found Etienne playing a bass solo in place of the Jean Luc Ponty spacey violin original, and Johns own solo lacked the fire of the original. A slower piece I didn't recognise followed but doesn't necessarily mean slow playing from the man, demonstrating there's no conflict between speed and soul, a criticism he's faced ever since he dazzled the world with his dexterity when he launched the MO at the start of the seventies.
More Mahavishnu and keyboards and bass were out demonstrating the vitality of a brilliant guitar/drums partnership, and John has played with Tony Williams and Trilok Gurtu as well as Cobham and Walden.
Some Indian singing from Ranjit brought keyboardist Gary Husband to the Herring band drum kit for a percussion duel.
It all happened so quickly, like a flash of lightning, and both groups were on stage, Herring keyboardist now on violin, John with a twin-neck announced some music from the early seventies. A protracted intro to Meeting of the Spirits hit like a sonic boom catching the audience off-guard and launching a roller-coaster ride through the biggies from the original band and choice cuts from my favourite MO album, the afore-mentioned Vision of the Emerald Beyond, featuring Ponty, Walden, Ralph Armstrong and Gayle Moran, (then married to Chick Corea) plus strings and horns.
This included Eternity's Breath with Etienne and the violinist sharing the vocals and Ranjit handling them on Earth Ship, the one to point to when people accuse McLaughlin of lacking soul. 
The myth surrounding the MO largely focuses on the original band (McLaughlin, Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman and Rick Laird) and this is the line-up some call the greatest band ever. But this is in no small part due to their impact live but the two albums by the next band are also remarkable, though anything since should be avoided.
Any doubts about the sense of travelling from the North East of England to Chicago dissipated in an instant. It went up a couple of notches from Herring to the Fourth Dimension, but this was the dawning of a new day and the world just may be ready to wake up. I've long thought that if the jazz establishment ever fully accepts Jazz-rock, John will be widely accepted as the most important Jazz artist since Trane. As we pleaded for an encore, one chap next to me kept shouting. 'Thank you John' and I don't think he meant just for the night.
I've no doubt people generally leave a Herring gig enthusing about what a fantastic guitarist he is, but on this tour, silence seems the best policy. It takes two guitarists to do John, even when he's one of them. I saw him a couple of years back and was amazed a man in his mid-seventies can still play like that, but tonight I agreed with Jeff Beck and Pat Metheny, that he's still the greatest living guitarist now.
It takes two world-class drummers to do Cobham and Walden but the bass players all but took turns. My only disappointment would be the exclusion of One Word, my personal favourite from the original band, which could have given scope for something with the two fine bass players; but I quibble.
Many times in my life I've experienced an adrenaline rush during a concert but this is only the second time (Maze in 82 the other) that it's lasted an entire set.
If he brings this to the UK, beg, borrow, steal, sell your granny to secure a ticket. 
Historic and life-changing all over again.
Steve T

2 comments :

Brian said...

Great review, Steve. Thank you.

Steve T said...

Review of previous night in current Prog Mag.

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