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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio + Abbie Finn @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

To clap or not to clap? That is the question

Applause after solos in the mid-performance of a piece has long been a tradition in jazz albeit not a tradition applauded by everyone.
In other forms of music such as grand opera applause is only given at the end of an aria when the rendition has, by general consensus, been sufficiently outstanding to merit the disruption of the show whereas, in jazz, the audience tends to clap irrespective of merit. And, if the audience doesn’t oblige, I know one bandleader that practically orders them to put their hands together and woe betide those who don’t.

The old Alex Welsh band were the first name band I encountered who used similar tactics. After a solo by one of his sidemen, Alex would exhort the crowd to ‘make him happy’ irrespective of how unhappy the player had made the audience feel although, I must confess, that I can’t recall any of the Welsh band making this listener feel unhappy. But the principle is there, after all, you don’t applaud dropped catches in cricket or missed ‘sitters’ in football.

I remember reading in an old Jazz Journal of film star Judy Holliday who, at the time was in a relationship with Gerry Mulligan, standing at the edge of the stage egging-on the audience to applaud a performance by the Mulligan Quartet at a concert in Paris.
Then there are bands who introduce the players before they’ve played a note and expect us to clap even though we have yet to hear what they can do.

And, of course, the listeners themselves fall into a host of different categories when it comes to applauding:
     1) The I can clap louder and longer than you. These are determined to have the last clap even though the rest of the audience has long since ceased to applaud.

    2) The should I or shouldn’t I clap? Terrified of being a voice in the wilderness, they wait until their neighbour takes the lead.

     3) The vocal applauder. Not content with clapping louder and longer than anyone else, this one also yells ‘Yeah man!’ or some other passé expression. This person is most frequently heard after drum solos and stratospheric trumpet choruses but never after bass solos.

     4) The strategic drinker. This one times it so that, at the moment of applause, he just happens to be picking his drink up and is therefore unable to join in the applause whilst having an excuse for not doing so.

      5) The ‘mother’ superior is of either gender and doesn’t applaud until the end of the piece (as we do at symphony concerts) but when the jazz pianist runs out of ideas and sticks in a quote from Way Down Upon the Swanee River he smiles and nods knowingly as if he’s the only person in the room who recognised those few bars.

Mind you applause can, at times, enhance the listener’s pleasure even though it doesn’t always enhance the music. The old JATP recordings wouldn’t be the same without the Rabelaisian crowd seeking blood and pushing the trumpets to play higher, the tenors to honk and squeal, the drummers to do battle. Without the crowd, the excitement would become boring.

So, at the end of the day, it’s up to you whether you applaud or not and whether you do it because the solo is worthy of it or out of common courtesy to save hurting the player’s feelings.
Lance.

1 comment :

Hugh C said...

Great piece, Lance. If there were the facility to "Like" it, I would give it a multitude of Likes!

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