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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 2023).

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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

June
Thu 01: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 01: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations.
Thu 01: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 01: Jake Leg Jug Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 01: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 02: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: Joseph Carville Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 02: Claire Martin & Her Trio @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. £25.00., £20.00. Feat. Jim Mullen, Alex Garnett & Jeremy Brown.
Fri 02: Guy Davis + Michael Littlefield & Scott Taylor @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm. Blues double bill.
Fri 02: Anders Ingram @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. Country blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 03: Newcastle Record Fair @ Northumbria University, Newcastle NE8 8SB. 10:00am-3:00pm. Admission: £2.00.
Sat 03: Pedigree Jazz Band @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 03: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Sue Ferris. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 03: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 03: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 04: Jam No. 18 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Friday, June 29, 2018

CD Review: John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once. The Lost Album

John Coltrane (soprano/tenor); McCoy Tyner (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); Elvin Jones (drums).
(Reviewed by Lance).
Released today (June 29)*
There's been so much hype about this - even Sonny Rollins got in on the act saying "This is like finding a new room in the Great Pyramid" - I was almost afraid to play it, knowing that it couldn't be that wonderful and I felt I was setting myself up for the great letdown.
I was wrong!

A few words, possibly from the recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, an unaccompanied phrase on soprano, and we're off to the races with all my worries left on the doorstep. Trane was on fire and only occasionally popped into the pet shop. 
"Titled" Untitled Original 11383 - Take 1 he swoops and soars, probes the outer limits. I've never been over keen on soprano saxes but I like what Trane's doing here. Tyner carries the torch, still burning brightly, hands it to Garrison who can bow his way around corners and does just that before switching to pizzicato.
Nature Boy, fairly straightforward by Coltrane's standards, has the great man on tenor, piano lays out whilst bass and drums put down some exotic, underlying rhythms giving Trane the framework to explore and develop the theme.
Another Untitled Original, this time it's 11386 - Take 1. Again on soprano and it's another hidden gem emerging 55 years on. Tyner superb and Elvin punctuating everything. Sometimes explosively, sometimes subtly but always appropriately.  Elvin and Garrison work so so well together - hear the interplay towards the track end.
Vilia. From Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow. What a strange choice although I've always maintained that if the player's good enough then so is the tune - Sonny Rollins once said something similar. It's a swinger, Trane's almost in Stan Getz mode and gives an indication for the inspiration behind the album's title - Both Directions at Once - for this is what we get. Coltrane remembering his roots and at the same time, looking to the future saying, this is where I've been, this is where I am  and this is where I'm going. This latter direction is demonstrated in this version of his oft-recorded Impressions. The sheets of sound may not have been fully unfolded but they are certainly out of the airing cupboard. 
Slow Blues does what it says on the tin and more. The opened tin has released the old 12 bar sequence into a brave, yet anguished, new world. The shackles are coming off, jump aboard the Freedom Train. Coltrane and Jones are driver and fireman, Tyner and Garrison First Class passengers.
One Up, One Down, a swinger to end all swingers. Anyone who hasn't listed this as the best previously unreleased album of the year could only be a banjo player.
The following day Coltrane was to go into the studio with singer Johnny Hartman where the singer and the Coltrane Quartet recorded possibly the greatest jazz vocal album ever whilst this album remained forgotten and gathering dust for 55 years!
Lance
*Available from June 29 on Impulse as:
a) Single CD.
b) Deluxe double CD with alternate takes.
c) 12" vinyl LP.

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