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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

15867 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 874 of them this year alone and, so far, 72 this month (Sept. 25).

From This Moment On ...

September

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.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Saturday, November 03, 2018

CD Review: John McLaughlin and the Fourth Dimension with Jimmy Herring and the Invisible Whip - Live in San Francisco.

John McLaughlin (12 string double neck and 6 string guitars), Ranjit Barot (drums, konocol and vocals), Gary Husband (electric piano and synths), Etienne M'Bappe (bass guitar and vocals). 

James Herring (guitar), Jason Crosby (violin, Fender Rhodes and vocals), Kevin Scott (bass guitar), Jeff Sipe (drums and gong), Matt Slocum (Hammond B3 and clavinet).
(Review by Steve T.)

It's probably easier to think of this as a Mahavishnu Orchestra album and MO Mk 1 was, at least, first and foremost a live band. This is where they changed lives, mine included. Because John is a musician who never really looked back, while there's been plenty of bootlegs, legitimate live recordings of their repertoire are pretty scarce, with three of mixed quality finally getting approval a few years back.

As far as memory serves, this is the same set-list Francis and I saw in Chicago three weeks earlier (about this time last year). It's more or less a best of/greatest hits set - insomuch as such terms have any relevancy here - drawn from the three albums by the original line-up and Visions of the Emerald Beyond from Mk 2; my favourite album and his.


Meeting of the Spirits kicked things off, as it did when he unleashed their debut album on an unsuspecting world in 1971. Straight into Birds of Fire, title track and opener of their follow-up, which seems to have more weight than in the studio, with more power-house drumming and exchanging guitar solos from the two players, and Herring's would be perfectly blistering in any other company. 
     
Back to the debut for Lotus on Irish Springs, which here sounds like it could have been recorded ten years later, in very different times for John McLaughlin and fusion jazz. Dance of Maya is another heavyweight from the same album which leads into Trilogy, from Between Nothingness and Eternity, a live set from 73, released to fulfil contractual obligations, with a studio version eventually rolling up as the millennium drew to a close. Ranjit Barot provides the Indian konocal singing style many people in the West would have first heard in his next band Shakti.
Earth Ship and Eternity's Breath are two killers from the Visions of the Emerald Beyond - an album chocker full of killers - and, while brilliant, the shortcomings in the vocal department are more apparent than I remember from the live gig.
Also from that album, Be Happy was the encore in Chicago and closes this set following more konocal by way of introduction. I can still remember being grateful for the encore, and such an explosive piece late in the set, but also a tinge of sadness that it had to come to an end.
Out now and in your local record store (there’s still a few) for a mere £15. 
Hugely recommended.

Steve T.      

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