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Bebop Spoken There

Kelly Sill: "Just because everyone is playing through the changes in the same time doesn't mean they're actually playing together" - (JazzTimes March/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

15260 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 279 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (March 29).

From This Moment On ...

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: Jambone @ Sage Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (book online). A YMP! event in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 01: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
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.

Tue 04: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 04: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Bradley Johnston (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations. Feat. John Pope, Marie Shreer, John Garner.
Thu 06: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 06: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Note earlier start time.

Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 07: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 07: Finntet + Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.
Fri 07: TBA @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Blind Pig Blues Club.

Friday, November 02, 2018

CD Review: Brad Whiteley - Presence

Brad Whiteley (Piano); Matt Pavolka (Bass); Kenneth Salters (Drums); Tom Guarna (Guitar); Michael Eaton (Saxophone).
(Review by Max Goodall)
From New Yorker Brad Whiteley comes an album of great contrasts. Whiteley has for a long time enjoyed working within a number of different styles and musical contexts. Always open to getting involved in new interesting projects; the last few years have seen him appear as (amongst other things) keyboardist in the pit band of the Broadway musical Avenue Q, Musical Director and Organist of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in the Bronx, Keyboardist with the Regina Spektor Band and composer for PBS Learning Matter show School Sleuth

In the follow up to his debut album as bandleader (Pathless Land – released in 2014) he draws on many of these contexts in separation.

The album opens with the bold, brash, 7/8 romp of Dusk; with its jagged and repetitive unison lines in guitar and bass. The tune has an excellent sense of light and shade, resolving in a lovely moment of clarity, before running headlong back into the established groove.

However, this rock-influenced tune is far from representative of the album’s whole. I mentioned different musical spheres appearing in isolation. Well, across the rest of the album we get snatches of free (Dawn), GoGo Penguin-esque modern pop-influenced ideas (The Unwinding) and more classic, albeit intelligently constructed, swingers (Sunset Park).

This illustrates Whiteley’s range as a composer. His intelligent use of time and tempo changes in, for example, Sinking Feeling are hugely effective. Moreover, he simultaneously displays a sensitive touch in the album’s title track. Despite this though, on Presence, it is his 11 original compositions which take centre stage.  While his playing is at times very enjoyable and fiercely proficient, he is occasionally out-shone by his band members. For example, Michael Eaton’s equal-parts scintillating, and chaotic playing on Sinking Feeling, evoke a sense of disintegration as alluded to by the track’s title.

My only significant criticism of Whiteley’s writing is that his taste for free breakdowns, in both time and structure, seem to yearn to resolve back into a tune and a re-establishment of order: a yearning which is regularly frustrated. Ultimately, however, this is a greatly enjoyable album. Stand-out tracks include Dusk, Sunset Park and Presence. Its eclecticism in a way allows it to become an album suitable for almost any taste.
Max.
Presence was released on Destiny Records on Oct. 5.

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