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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 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

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sat 21: Lindsay Hannon Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £15.00. ‘Swinging with Christmas Songs’.
Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 21: Jackson’s Wharf Xmas Party @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 7:00pm. Free. Featuring the New ’58 Jazz Collective.
Sat 21: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sun 22: Hot Club du Nord @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £15.00. + bf. Xmas party. SOLD OUT!
Sun 22: Red Kites Jazz @ Gibside Chapel, nr. Rowlands Gill. 1:00pm. Admission charge applies.
Sun 22: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 22: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Revolutionaires @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb rhythm & blues outfit.
Sun 22: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger & Mark Robertson @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Line-up TBC.
Sun 22: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music (musicians TBC).
Sun 22: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Zerox, Sandhill, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors).

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Mon 23: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 4:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Mon 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. TBC.
Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free. Business as usual!.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 27: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

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

Saturday, January 26, 2019

CD Review: The Ebony Hillbillies - 5 Miles From Town

(Review by Ann Alex).

A different sort of CD to review. This one is noted as ‘Roots Music/Americana but there are jazz elements as well. Think of Sage Gateshead’s Americana Festival in July and you have the atmosphere. The band is seven black musicians, as in ‘ebony’, who started out on the streets of Manhattan, advanced to performing in Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center, appeared on the BBC and NBC, and do international festivals and workshops. This is their fifth CD.

An interesting mixture of country, pop, bluegrass, folk and jazz, mostly acoustic. 11 tracks, a mixture of songs and instrumentals, all traditional material except 4 tracks which include Smokey Robinson’s Fork In The Road and the Prince song Cream. The general feel is gritty, funky, sometimes romantic, and with a social conscience, as shown by an updated version of the blues, Another Man Done Gone. I sing this song in folk clubs, about a man in a chain gang being unlawfully killed e.g. ‘He had a long chain on’ but this version is cleverly updated to ‘He had a hoodie on’. An interesting aspect of the music is the use of ‘folky’ percussion, such as bones and spoons, which gives an unusual light bouncy effect. Mind, I have no idea what ‘cowboy percussion’, listed below,  is unless it’s juggling 10-gallon hats!

Most of the tunes are led by violin, which does a fair bit of improvisation, and I get the feeling that the band probably deviates from the written music if indeed they work much from written music at all. For instance, the opening track, Hog-Eyed Man, is an instrumental with a strong fast rhythm, the bass keeping a repetitive groove, and percussion at the turnaround of each section of the tune. I’ve been told that during bluegrass music festivals, the pace is fast and furious and no prisoners are taken, and this is indicated on this track.

Wang, Dang, Doodle (Willie Dixon) is about a party, a song to banjo backing, which really swings. I don’t know why banjos are despised by so many musicians, as it is really effective here. Spoons and percussion appear on Darling Corey. I Can’t Make You Love Me (Reid/Shamblin) sings the woman resignedly, a similar theme to the jazz song Black Coffee; then a change of mood to a spiritual Where He Leads Me, sung by a male voice with a gentle female voice blending quietly in the background. Other tracks not mentioned are Carroll County Blues; I’m On My Way To Brooklyn; I’d Rather Be A Nigga Than A Po’ White Man; Oh What A Time; Five Miles From Town.

Jazz lovers with wide tastes and Americana fans would especially love this CD. It’s currently available from Amazon, CDBaby and iTunes. 
See www.theebonyhillbillies.com/home
Ann Alex  
Henrique Prince (violin, vocals); Norris Washington Bennett (banjo, mountain dulcimer, guitar, vocals); Gloria Thomas Glassaway (bones, vocals); William Salty Bill Salter (acoustic bass); Allanah Salter (shaker, vocals); Newman Taylor Baker (washboard, perc); A.R. Ali Rahman (cowboy perc)

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