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Bebop Spoken There

Béla Fleck: “ And that's the great thing about live performances, you take people on a journey. It doesn't have to be like something else they've heard. It's not supposed to be". DownBeat, April, 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

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm.
Thu 28: Richard Herdman Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Guests: Josh Bentham (alto sax); Alan Marshall (tenor sax); Neil Brodie (trumpet); Adrian Beadnell (bass); Graham Thompson (keys); Steve Hunter (drums).

Fri 29: FILM: Soul @ The Forum Cinema, Hexham. 12:30pm. Jazz-themed film animation.
Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free. POSTPONED!
Fri 29: Thundercat @ Newcastle City Hall.
Fri 29: John Logan @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 30: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 30: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Whitley Bay Library, York Road, Whitley Bay. 8:00pm.

Sun 31: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 31: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields NE30 1HJ. 3:00pm. Free. Lambert, Alan Law & Paul Grainger.
Sun 31: Sid Jacobs & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. USA/London jazz guitar duo.
Sun 31: Bellavana @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

April
Mon 01: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 02: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Dean Stockdale, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 03: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 03: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 03: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Sunday, January 07, 2018

Frank Morgan

I'm sure we all do it. You know what I mean, you decide to move CDs from one space to another then, midway through the operation, you stop and say to yourself, "I'd forgotten all about this guy" or, "How long have I had this album?" Sometimes you wonder why you'd bought it in the first place! Other times and today was such an occasion, it's like falling in love all over again.
Frank Morgan.
Alto saxophonist par excellence.
I should have picked up on Frank earlier - he was on Wardell Gray's last recording in 1955 and, with Wardell being a big idol of mine I should have latched on to Frank and maybe I would have had he not left the scene in familiar circumstances for the next 30 years. So my post-Parker alto adulation moved on to another flawed genius - Art Pepper.
Both musicians, despite (or maybe because of) their knife-edge lifestyle, proved, in retrospect, to be the outstanding altoists of their remaining years. Pepper died in 1982 whilst Morgan hung on until 2007.
In Pepper's later years his influence was Coltrane and he incorporated much of this into his own playing.
Those who saw him at a concert in Newcastle not long before his passing recall a fraught evening. Will he? Won't he? the answer was always a hesitant yes and we all breathed a sigh of relief when he came through. His clarinet playing almost stole the show from his alto numbers.
To get back to Frank Morgan, The CDs I discovered 'hiding' between Mooney, Joe, and Morgan, Lee were volumes 2 & 3 of a three-CD set recorded live at the Jazz Standard in NYC in November 2003.
The Parker flame still burns but Morgan [Frank] has fuelled it with some incendiary devices of his own.
I'd have loved to have been in Carnegie Hall on January 16, 1938, Massey Hall on that night in 1952 or maybe at Monk's legendary Town Hall concert but, most of all, I'd swap them for a ringside table at the Jazz Standard for Frank Morgan's gig.
Still, I've got the CDs - well two out of three - the search is on for volume one.
Apart from the alto playing, George Cables is on piano. Cables also had a long association with Art Pepper, Curtis Lundy supplies the basslines whilst Billy Hart, no stranger to Newcastle, is on drums.
Crime writer Michael Connelly and his character, cop Harry Bosch are both jazz people and the author is listed as the executive producer on The Sound of Redemption, a 2015 documentary about Frank Morgan.
There's also a fantastic concert on YouTube with Frank, Red Rodney, Monty Alexander, Rufus Reid and Roy Haynes recorded in Cannes, 1989.
A forgotten man? I can't think of anyone else I'd sooner remember and, you know what, I've just unearthed an LP - Mood Indigo. That's tomorrow night's listening taken care of!
Lance.

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