Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Orrin Evans: “Now, getting a teaching spot is the new record deal”. (DownBeat, November, 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

17502 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 776 of them this year alone and, so far, 14 this month (Nov. 5).

From This Moment On ...

November

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 06: The Horne Section’s Hit Show @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 07: Jazz Appreciation North East/Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘George - named musicians, vocalists & composers (Chisholm, Duke, Lewis, Shearing, Benson, Melly, Gershwin et al)’.
Thu 07: Aki Remally: The Gil Scott-Heron Songbook @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Remally (guitar, vocals); Fraser Urquhart (piano); Tom Wilkinson (bass); Max Popp (drums).
Thu 07: Rat Pack Live @ Whitley Bay Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Thu 07: Mo Scott @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guest band night with the new Pensacola Boulevard: Josh Bentham (trumpet!); Donna Hewitt (clarinet); Ron Smith (bass); Graham Thompson (keys); Mark Hawkins (drums); Django ZaZou (trombone); Vicky Jackson (vocals).

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm.
Fri 08: TC & the Groove Family + Swannek + Knats @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 09: Moscow Drug Club @ Hamsterley Village Hall, Co. Durham DL13 3QF. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sat 09: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 10: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘second Sunday in the month’ residency.
Sun 10: Panharmonia @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £6.00.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Moscow Drug Club @ Lesbury Village Hall, nr. Alnwick NE66 3PP. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sun 10: SH#RP Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Graham Hardy’s Eclectic Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 12: Matthew Forster Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.
Tue 12: Phil’s Elastic Band @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Free, but ticketed, book online.

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

Thursday, August 16, 2018

More on Aretha (1942 - 2018)

(By Steve T)
It's common knowledge that Aretha sang gospel prior to becoming the Queen of Soul, but the Jazz is less known, though what I've heard sounds fine.
It may come as a surprise to some that I haven't heard everything she's ever done, but I haven't and have no intention of doing so. Much is made of her gospel roots, but that was already present, in the music of Ray Charles, James Brown, Solomon Burke and especially Sam Cooke.

Nevertheless, it's impossible to overstate her significance in soul music, and particularly amongst the ladies. For many years it was difficult for female soul singers to become established without the Aretha grain. Roberta Flack initially became a singer-songwriter in the vein of Joni Mitchell because she didn't fit the Aretha model. You either did Aretha or Diana Ross.

As I scour the news channels, I cringe at some of the clips of her faltering voice; a voice on the edge, on a tightrope, the site of the finest art. Hardened Soul Fans will tell you that, while Aretha's voice often fell on the wrong side of good taste, particularly after her sixties/early seventies heyday, Linda Jones never missed.
There are countless soul singers with incredible voices: Mavis Staples, Gladys Knight, Barbara Acklin, Maxine Brown, Betty Wright, Barbara Lynn, Betty Swan, Barbara Lewis, Millie Jackson, Margie Joseph, Denise Lasalle, Shirley Brown, Chaka Khan, Minnie Ripperton, Jean Carn, Phyllis Hyman, Angela Bofill, Anita Baker, Regina Belle, Angie Stone. Whether it matters that none of these would have happened - at least in the same way - without Aretha, is for you to decide.
   
At a time when - despite what the myths tell you - the album was dead in the wood, Aretha defied everyone, releasing not just one, but two classic albums - Never Loved a Man and Lady Soul. Only Curtis Mayfield had produced quality Soul Albums at that time, by his group the Impressions, but he, like Marvin Gaye, are soul artists who stand outside time. (Curtis would go on to write and produce Aretha.)

She never again hit the dizzy heights but the best ever version of Oh no not my Baby bolstered the Spirit in the Dark album a couple of years later. Also check out It Only Happens, the finest ever version of a modern soul biggie. Her voice went through changes in the seventies and eighties and as she hit the cabaret trail and started mixing with Annie Lennox and George Michael, soul fans either pulled out their hair or just lost interest.

I was knocking around with soul DJs at the time of the release of Who's Zooming Who and they had to buy everything just in case, otherwise I wouldn't have heard Integrity, a final gem of a record. The DJ in question spotted its potential but didn't have the necessary tackle to play it, leaving others to turn it into a staple of the modern scene. Terry Jones, of Hoochie fame, was one of the DJs who did play it.

When I met the future number one wife, she had come at the album from a different perspective, but still spotted it as the strongest cut on the album. 
Finally, one treasure you shouldn't miss is Aretha, Sing One for Me by legendary songwriter George Jackson.
Steve T

3 comments :

Steve T said...

I shouldn't have missed Doris Duke and Sandra Feva; two former backing singers in a similar vein. Also can't believe I didn't include Irma Thomas and Betty Lavette. And while we're about it, there's Debbie Taylor, Zulema, Ann Sexton, Patti Austin, Eloise Laws and no doubt loads of others who'll come to me in the coming days.

Steve T said...

CAN'T believe I'd forgotten Laura Lee, Candi Statton, Dorothy Moore and Mary J Bligh, even on my second stab. Then there's Brenda Russell, Linda Clifford, Sandra Wright, Betty Everett, Gloria Scott, Rozetta Johnson, Betty Harris, Deniece Williams, Jill Scott, Teena Marie and presumably loads more.
You can take from this that Aretha was hugely influential on a lot of people. Also that there are loads of great female Soul Singers, in a genre - like jazz, blues and reggae - significantly dominated by men, many of whom are - dare I say - as good as Aretha.

Steve T said...

Turns out the trumpet solo on Integrity (from Who's Zooming Who) was none other than one D. Gillespie. Further evidence of the former intertextuality between Soul and Jazz we're in danger of losing.

Blog Archive