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Bebop Spoken There

Wendell Brunious: "Because the blues is not 1,4 and 5 or 1,4,5,2,1. You could wake up with a flat tyre or a headache this morning, that's the blues, man" - (DownBeat, Oct. 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

15878 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 885 of them this year alone and, so far, 83 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

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.

Tue 03: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums). CANCELLED!

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Paul Skerritt @ Vespa Italian Bar & Steakhouse, Primrose Hill, Jarrow. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 483 3355.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Sound the Trumpets @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 05: Hot Club du Nord @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00. POSTPONED!
Thu 05: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Tommy Bentz Trio + Mark Croft Duo + George Shovlin & George Lamb @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Harbour View Speakeasy's USA blues double bill + Shovlin & Lamb!
Thu 05: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 06: Alcyona Mick @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 2:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Balo @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Fri 06: Lexer/Mayes/Noble + Semay Wu + Miman @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Vault, Hexham. 7:30pm. £20.00. Book in advance. Moreno with Alan Law, Paul Grainger & John Bradford.
Fri 06: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. 'Celebrating Oscar'.
Fri 06: Nu Brass Sounds: Big Brass Bash @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: TBC @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 07: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 10:15am. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Hot Club du Nord @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 07: Bugge & Niccols + Moore & Fairhall @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - All the Things You Are. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 07: Rie Nakajima @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Sat 07: Samuel Blaser Trio + Toxvaerd & Zeeberg + Muramatsu & Welch @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Folk-Jazz Interweaving: Elina Duni / Trio FCT @ The Black Swan – May 23


Elina Duni  (voice/acoustic guitar/keyboard).
(Review by Melanie Grundy/Photos courtesy of Ken Drew)

This night of jazz-folk interweaving began with a solo set from acclaimed Albanian-Swiss singer Elina Duni. Accompanying herself on guitar, she opened with Meu Amor, a song made famous by Queen of Fado, Amalia Rodriguez. Despite the Portuguese lyrics, the heartbreak and longing conveyed by her intonation held the audience rapt from the first syllable. Moving seamlessly into a more upbeat Albanian folk-song, which contrary to its feel, expressed the longing of the migrant for home. Elina then paused to explain the motivation for her solo project Partir - the fact that we are all bound to depart, becoming potential exiles or immigrants in one way or another, separated from home, family, love and even ourselves, longing to find our way back.

This theme continued with the Italian song Amara Terra Mia (My bitter land), then moving from guitar to keyboard, Elina paired a bittersweet traditional Albanian song of marriage, which she described as “another kind of exile” with Bareshë, (The Shepherdess). Her use of scat in both reflecting the characteristic ornamental turns used in Balkan folk-singing. Pre-gig, Elina explained the Rhodes accompaniment was not one she would normally use, preferring the simpler tones of an acoustic piano, however, its’ timbre made an unexpectedly appropriate partner to the traditional lyrics. Moving to a completely different tone of longing, Elina returned to her guitar for Willow Weep for Me, a blues chosen for its female authorship. This segued into the Hungarian Vaj si Kenka (You don’t need to) blending percussive guitar and scatted vocal passages with that distinctly eastern feel. The set ended with the mournful Swiss folk-song Schönster Abestärn (My beautiful Evening Star).

Elina presented songs that are both culturally specific and universal in the common experience they document. The intimacy and vulnerability of her solo performance was cathartic, leaving the listener with a sense of being cleansed emotionally. The Jazz Café audience was left longing for more, as Elina made her own swift departure to catch a train.

Trio FCT (Faye MacCalman (reeds/voice); Tobias Illingworth (keyboard/voice); Callum Younger (snare/cymbal/bodhran).

Anything Faye MacCalman touches is stamped with outstanding creative and technical ability and this ensemble is no different. Trio FCT originally formed in September 2015, when Younger began his Master’s research into the use of the bodhran in an improvised setting. Tonight saw the group’s first performance together in 2 years since Younger relocated to Glasgow. However, the obvious rapport between the players was clear from the get-go, in the looks, gestures and spoken signals indicating changes of tempo or movement between structure and improvisation.

The trio’s opener Every Soldier Comes Back With a Bruise perfectly balances repetitive, Scottish folk-influenced patterns with freer structured sections. Peanut Butter opened with a thoughtful, almost oriental keyboard line, soft, breathy tenor and light bodhran and cymbal touches; the reflective melody gathering momentum, as MacCalman switched to clarinet, with a repeated phrase moving up and down in thirds. At a spoken signal, the tempo picked up, the hypnotic patterns then dissolving into a spacious melody. 

Discus Hibiscus saw MacCalman and Illingworth vocalizing over a repetitive rhythmic keyboard pattern, before MacCalman took up the tenor for a mesmerizing passage of long soft tones alternating with superbly controlled harmonics; the piece moved back into the sung melody, which faded into a concluding dialogue between keys and bodhran. Rhodes Decision gave us a bubbling keyboard line, weaving in and out of textural tenor, gradually building pace and dynamic, until it tumbled over the waterfall into a gloriously free pool of keyboard flurries, tenor squeaks, and cymbal scrapes. MacCalman then switched to clarinet and drew us into a new melodic line inspired by the longing of a Scottish lament, with a more traditional bodhran pulse and rhythmic piano, slowly loosening into something altogether more spacious, light and airy.

This is thoughtful, considered music, full of colour and texture, creating a soundscape open to the listener’s interpretation; there are references to Scottish folk-music, but these are never overstated. There are plans to record an EP in the near future, and for more live performances, which will be highly anticipated and are thoroughly recommended.  
Melanie Grundy
More photos by Ken Drew.

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