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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

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.

Friday, March 01, 2019

CD Review: Ehud Asherie Trio - Wild Man Blues

Ehud Asherie (piano); Peter Washington (bass); Rodney Green (drums).
(Review by Lance).

Israeli born Asherie, largely self-taught, paid his dues at the legendary late-night jams at Smalls down in Greenwich Village. It gave him the experience to handle whatever was thrown at him in a jam as well as realising he could look backward whilst looking forward. As such, his take on Louis Armstrong's Wild Man Blues sounds more modern than Parker's Mood! A credit to Asherie and the content of the originals.


Flying Down to Rio is taken at tempo de Peterson and one is tempted to conjure up the mayhem that would have ensued if the film soundtrack had been played at this tempo (in the film, girls were on the wings of an airplane)!

Autumn Nocturne is classic ballad playing at its best. Asherie's choice of chords is as good as any of the great chord-masters such as Garner, Shearing, Buckner, Brubeck, Peterson, Powell - add his name to the list.

Chasin' the Bird is another example of Asherie's fluency - the feeling is that the instrument doesn't own him but that he is lord and master of all 88 notes. Washington and Green indicate that they too are names to be reckoned with in the form of pungent solos and breaks.

It may be 50 or so years since the bossa-nova rhythm entered the jazz lexicon but it hasn't gone away and whilst you sometimes wish it had that is not the case here. Na Baixa Da Sapateira is absolutely gorgeous with a melody that makes you wish that you too were flying down to Rio.

Oh, Lady Be Good may have done wonders for Ella's emerging career, her bull in a china shop onslaught did much for her jazz credence but little for the song. Asherie has the technique to do the same but, sensibly (and sensitively) takes it at a tempo nearer to the Gershwin's original idea without losing the jazz feel it deserves.

Mr and Mrs Gillespie (AKA John Birks & Lorraine) wrote And Then She Stopped which it duly does but not before some more Latin rhythms and scintillating pianistics bring it to that point.
A gem! Available March 15 on Capri Records.
Lance.

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