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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

June

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 04: Jam No. 18 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Tuesday, May 07, 2019

Cheltenham Jazz Festival: Rymden @ the Jazz Arena - May 4


Bugge Wesseltoft (piano, keybooards), Dan Berglund (double bass), Magnus Ostrom (drums).
(Review by Steve T)


Cheltenham Festival darling Gregory Porter sold out months ago, with Georgie Fame and Swing Out Sister selling out on the day of the shows, but I don't know anything else that did, perhaps because there was so much music to choose from.

This can't have been far short of selling out, but I wonder if more would have gone had they known what it was. I only found out by accident a couple of days before, having decided I wasn't going to the North Sea Festival because they clashed with eighties' Soul Queen Anita Baker.

We originally planned to get down in time for Joshua Redman, until our passenger needed to get down earlier and so we didn't get down in time. I scoured the programme, as I'd done numerous times before, looking for something to fill the gap, and by clicking on 'Bugge Wesseltoft, Dan Be' I found they collectively came under the name of Rymden. Although a supergroup, I suspect Rymden would have been a better way to advertise it.

The person who introduced them was an adviser for the festival, so presumably had something to do with this gaff and all the other gaffs which are part and parcel of this festival. He told us the festival likes European Jazz but then went on to say they like American Jazz and English Jazz, which raised an inappropriate cheer.

I've often found myself in company with left-wing nationalists, but this was my first time surrounded by people I imagine were right-wing nationalists, and I found it decidedly uncomfortable and wondered if this was part of the reason Cheltenham Jazz Festival and I have never hit it off.   

He assured us he wasn't making a point and the three pros walked onstage, Swedish drummer Magnus - who did what little talking there was - raising a laugh asking if there was no football on.

I only knew of them from a Jazzwise cover story and liked the sound of it, so their album arrived in my basket and - like so many others - gradually slipped down the listings. Amazon are the worst company in the world - like the Cheltenham Jazz Festival of retail - but Prime works a treat so the album slipped snugly through my letterbox in time to play it on the journey down.

Spacey guitar-less jazz-rock was what I anticipated and what I got, on the album and live. The musicianship was as brilliant as you'd expect, Magnus following his trinkets and nick-nacks around with a mic in his left hand during the quieter bits. Fellow Swede Berglund maintaining an equal share of the music with his upright bass, a bow and a few effects, and Norwegian Bugge darting between the arena grand - whatever renders synthesizers redundant these days - and a bank of electronics.

The sound of the Fender Rhodes seemed a favourite and I'm sure they must know Herbie's electric stuff from the seventies and Weather Report, particularly the initial lineup with Miroslav Vitous on mostly acoustic bass, and the final group with Victor Bailey and Omar Hakim on bass and drums respectively.     

All the pieces - which I think was the whole album - started peacefully before either exploding or gradually rising into a heavy groove. I've no doubt they know their prog-rock too.

As it happened we didn't make it in time for Rachel Musson and Xhosa and, those with a spouse who isn't particularly committed to jazz will understand you have to choose your battles, so I sacrificed Joshua Redman for my way better half to enjoy the delights of a Saturday night in Cheltenham, complete with Wetherspoons. I know how to treat a gal.

I work on the basis the artists get paid anyway, and I try to give the festival as little money as I can get away with, so this turned out to be the only act I saw that day and the only act all weekend I hadn't seen before, but it got my 2019 Cheltenham experience off to a cracking start.
Steve T

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the reason you failed to "hit it off" with Cheltenham Jazz Festival is because you spent your time looking for big names instead of going to the Parabola Arts Centre where the cutting edge, mainly European Jazz was to be found. and maybe you'd have changed your views about the audience if you had heard the enormous cheer greeting the same adviser(who programmed that venue) when he stressed the importance of collaborations across European boundaries. And since you then went to Wetherspoons you clearly DO spend time surrounded by right-wing nationalists!

Anonymous said...

I have to agree , after being to Cheltenham on numerous occasions and seeing the cutting edge jazz as described, the audience remain very subdued and not terribly responsive, maybe this is just a northern perception,who knows!!, but thankfully wherever we are we can always rely on Weatherspoons to pull a lively crowd.

Steve T said...

The next gig I went to was at Parabola. In my five visits to Cheltenham I have never not gone to Parabola. I don't agree with Cheltenham putting on 'big names' because the festival no longer knows what it is and jazz fans suffer through poor treatment becuase the festival imagines we don't care who we see either.
If anonymous one ever went to Wetherspoons, s/he'd realise it's full of left wing nationalists, even in Cheltenham.

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