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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 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

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Fri 20: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-3:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 20: Baghdaddies @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Smokin’ Spitfires @ Platform 1, East Bedlington Community Centre. 7:00pm.
Fri 20: Pete Tanton’s Christmas @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Alligator Gumbo @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Abbie Finn’s Finntet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 20: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sat 21: Lindsay Hannon Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £15.00. ‘Swinging with Christmas Songs’.
Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 21: Jackson’s Wharf Xmas Party @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 7:00pm. Free. Featuring the New ’58 Jazz Collective.
Sat 21: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sun 22: Hot Club du Nord @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £15.00. + bf. Xmas party. SOLD OUT!
Sun 22: Red Kites Jazz @ Gibside Chapel, nr. Rowlands Gill. 1:00pm. Admission charge applies.
Sun 22: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 22: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Revolutionaires @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb rhythm & blues outfit.
Sun 22: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger & Mark Robertson @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Line-up TBC.
Sun 22: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music (musicians TBC).
Sun 22: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Zerox, Sandhill, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors).

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Mon 23: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 4:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Mon 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. TBC.
Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

CD Review: Owen Broder - Heritage

Owen Broder (alto/tenor/baritone); Sarah Caswell (violin); Scott Wendholt (trumpet/flugel); Nick Finzer (trombone); James Shipp (vibes/perc); Frank Kimbrough (piano); Jay Anderson (bass); Matt Wilson (drums); Wendy Gilles, Kate McGarry, Vuyo Satashe (vocals).
(Review by Lance).
As the name implies, Heritage is saxophonist/composer Broder's exploration of American roots music from Appalachian folk to early blues, spirituals to bluegrass, carefully weaving the elements into another distinctly American musical tradition - jazz.
The album kicks off with Broder's own Appalachian inspired Goin' Up Home with solos by Shipp and Finzer. The latter managing to slot the well known Milt Bernhardt phrase from Kenton's Peanut Vendor into his trombone solo.
Tokyo-born Miho Hazama provided Wherever the Road Leads which gave space for some fine alto playing from Broder, Finzer sans Bernhardt and some country fiddling from Sarah Caswell. An improvised hoedown in them there hills.

Sarah fiddled whilst serving the Jambalaya à la Bill Holman. Holman said: "I picked Jambalaya for its simple melody and harmony, which left space for me to do what arrangers do." It also left space for Wendholt to get some Miles in. Broder added: "This swinging re-imagination of the Cajun tune has closer ties to Birth of the Cool than the streets of New Orleans".
Jim McNeely arranged Cripple Creek drawing parallels with Jazz and Bluegrass. Trumpet, tenor, trombone and fiddle affect the merger of the genres and there ain't a banjo closer than you could throw one. A rousing Dixieland ride-out with some tailgating from Finzer.
Wayfaring Stranger takes me back to my pre-jazz days and a Burl Ives'78'. This Ryan Truesdale arrangement bears little resemblance to the Burl Ives version (or, indeed, Truesdale's Gil Evans' Project). McGarry, Gilles and Sotashe provide words to this bleak landscape that is only made tolerable by Jay Anderson's bass solo.
I'm Not Afraid to Die, a Hazama arrangement of a composition by Gillian Welch, showcases Kimbrough on piano and a mellow flugel solo by Wendholt.
Brodeo, composer Truesdale, captures the atmosphere of the rodeo with the bluegrass and the jazz played out by Caswell and Broder. Wilson's drums perhaps represent the bucking broncos - no, I'm not swearing!
The People Could Fly. Alfonso Horne's piece tells of an African tribe who could fly. They were taken into Slavery and shipped to America where all but one forgot how to fly. That one ancient reminded them how to fly and they flew away to safety. On the album, it is Finzer who flies with down-home earthy plungering. Satashe chants Karuka which means 'to fly'.
Broder wrote A Wiser Man Than me as a New Orleans dirge that allows the group to improvise freely. Broder blows baritone. Classic blues.
An interesting album that grows upon repeated listening.
Lance.

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