Total Pageviews

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.

Monday, September 03, 2018

Bruce Adams w. Al Wood Quartet @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington - September 2

Al Wood (alto/baritone); Bruce Adams (trumpet/flugel); Martin Longhawn (piano); Garry Jackson (bass); Tim Carter (drums).
(Review by Lance).
A most enjoyable early evening gig when this blog really did deliver what was on the tin. Bebop was most certainly spoken here in the form of Al Wood and Bruce Adams who played as if they'd been born and bred on 52nd St or, in the case of Wood, The Haig on Wilshire Boulevard. 
The Haig was the small club in LA where the original Gerry Mulligan Quartet first became known. I doubt if it was as big as Darlington's St. Augustine Parish Centre, the temporary home for Darlington Jazz Club, but for a couple of hours last night, the two venues were interchangeable.
The overriding theme was Gerry Mulligan and, in Al Wood, we had a baritone player more than capable of taking the lead role. On alto, Charlie Parker was the influence whilst Wood's' worthy constituent - Bruce Adams - played notes Chet Baker could only dream about. Dizzy was more his man.
To the rhythm section, Dizzy, Chet etc. were probably just names from the history books like Beethoven, Bach or Liberace. However, Longhawn, Jackson and Carter knew their history and they provided the two veterans out front with a launchpad. 
Apart from the well-known Bernie's Tune and Lullaby of the Leaves, Wood chose to cast his net further afield than tunes from the original quartet album so we had: Reunion; Swinghouse (written for the Kenton Band); Blueport; As Catch Can; Ode to a Flugel Horn and Motel
Away from Mulligan we also heard; Opus de Funk; Funk in  Deep Freeze; Groovin' High; Dat Dere and Friends Again; all played on alto, an instrument on which Wood is equally fluent.
Needless to say, Adams was his usual flamboyant self. No note too high - are there any better British trumpet players?  If there are I could count them on one hand after doing a blindfold test in a sawmill.
Apart from the leaders, the trio, despite being given limited solo space, seized the moment with Longhawn particularly outstanding.
100% perfect? Well, let's say 95%. I'd like to have heard Adams blowing flugel on a ballad, which I know he does so well and, likewise, Wood putting in some balladic baritone blowing. 
Apart from that minor observation, it was an excellent evening.
Lance.

No comments :

Blog Archive