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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 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!"

Postage

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Saturday, April 28, 2018

CD Review: Shake Stew - Rise and Rise Again

(Review by Russell)
Rise and Rise Again is the second album by Austrian band Shake Stew. Comprising of six tracks with a total running time of just shy of forty-three minutes, bandleader Lukas Kranzelbinder wrote all of the music heard on this Traumton label release. The unusual instrumentation of three horns, two bass players and two drummers produces a distinctive, frequently overwhelming sound. The opening track – Dancing in the Cage of a Soul – goes for the jugular with its insistent percussive rhythmic pulse. Saxophonists Clemens Salesny and Johannes Schleiermacher join the noisy fray until ceding to a two-drum coda.

Township trumpet by Mario Rom elevates How We See Things to something akin to an anthemic, hypnotic slow groove which succeeds in quelling the now four horns line-up with the addition of a guest tenor saxophonist – the critically acclaimed Shabaka Hutchings – contributing to the first of two tracks. Kranzelbinder composed Goodbye Johnny Staccato specifically for tenor saxophonist Johannes Schleiermacher to let rip and he does just that. Inspired by the late ’fifties/early ’sixties American television series featuring John Cassavetes as a jazz piano playing private detective, it certainly isn’t Elmer Bernstein!

The two-part Fall Down Seven Times/Get Up Eight offers further light and shade, contrasting with the still-ringing-in the-ears opener. The titles suggest a dogged perseverance, a determination to rise up, confront the (socio-political?) matter at hand, ultimately overcoming seemingly impossible odds. First there is Rom’s superlative trumpet playing, then Hutchings making his presence felt.

No Sleep My King? closes Shake Stew’s second album in becalmed, stately fashion. The Austrian jazz scene isn’t readily familiar territory to Bebop Spoken Here. Perhaps this new album by Shake Stew will open up a rich new seam of European jazz waiting to be heard by a British, European or indeed, international audience.                              
Russell

Rise and Rise Again by Shake Stew is released on the Traumton label (catalogue no.4663) on Friday May 4, available on CD, 180g vinyl and as a digital download. Shake Stew will be on tour in the UK in 2019. 

Clemens Salesny (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Johannes Schleiermacher (tenor saxophone); Mario Rom (trumpet); Lukas Kranzelbinder (double bass, electric bass); Manuel Mayr (double bass, electric bass); Niki Dolp (drums, percussion); Mathias Koch (drums, percussion) + Shabaka Hutchings (tenor saxophone) tracks 2 & 5.

1 comment :

Patti said...

And did anyone see what the Wiener Zeitung said about this recording ........ 'Shamanic smears of sound, a fusillade of colossal, architectural beats, and snaking, energy-drunk horn lines - vast, cinematic music.' I think they liked it!

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