Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Mar 26: Pop Jazz @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. 'Jazzified' tunes by the likes of Sylvester, Bowie, the Monkees etc., feat. Alan Law, David Gray, Richard Herdman & Jude Murphy.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Pete Tanton's Riviera Quartet @ Gala Theatre, Durham - October 11

Pete Tanton (trumpet, flugelhorn); Mark Williams (guitar); Andy Champion (bass); Russ Morgan (drums).

(Review by Brian Ebbatson/Photos courtesy of Malcolm Sinclair).

It’s not often that a band arrives with a mission statement, but that is the case with the Riviera Quartet, who arrived to play the Gala Studio Friday lunchtime set, but found themselves transferred to the main theatre with its spacious stage, sophisticated lighting and ample room for the 100+ audience. And they spread the magic of their music in accordance with their mission. Which - in case you missed it - is “to bring the combined energy of bossa nova, blues and bebop to new listeners and to build a broad audience. Imagine driving along the highway from Nice to Monaco, or even Los Angeles to Monterey, in a convertible – this is the music you would listen to.”

Pete Tanton opened the set with Chega de Saudade (aka No More Blues) in direct tribute both to “our spiritual guide”, composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, and “our musical inspiration”, Dizzy Gillespie and Lalo Schifrin’s 1962 album Dizzy on the Riviera. Pete’s opening trumpet gave a taste of what was to follow, clear fresh tones, melodic improvisation, a tight, driving rhythm section and inventive guitar work. A suitable scene-setter for a series of originals from the pens of Tanton and Williams, none of which failed to meet the mission statement criteria and all of which sat well with the Jobim/Gillespie/Schifrin classic.

Barbados – a track from their CDfollowed. A catchy melody with a Caribbean lilt, giving space not just for Pete’s trumpet but for extended guitar work by Mark. Turf War (also on the CD) followed, a Horace Silverish opening theme, countered by Mark’s smooth chords, leading to relaxed flugel and guitar solos.

Pete switched to muted trumpet – more cool Miles than Dizzy – for the third CD track, Mark’s There They’re There. With Russ weaving his patterns on brushes and Andy just doing what he does best, Mark again strode out on guitar and Andy showed he too can improvise melody. Drums, bass, guitar and muted trumpet exchange eights, before Mark and Pete roll the music to an atmospheric close.

Time for Pete to reveal another aspect of the quartet’s playing – his voice - in three numbers. First To Heaven Overnight, a sort of celebratory love song, lyrics and composition both by Tanton, to be released as a single next year. Very Jobimesque lyrics – "To heaven overnight, please take me there ….. come with me tonight .. carry us away on its wings…." . Then One Kiss, a single now available on Spotify and iTunes, a distinctly Brazilian feel, particularly the theme of loss and desertion (shades of Chega de Saudade – “Não há beleza é só tristeza e a melancholia – look it up!). “I kissed her lips just yesterday, but now she kisses someone else today”. Another – happier – love affair is told in I Fall in Love, again a Latin rhythm featuring Mark on guitar. “I fall in love every time you are near me. I fall in love every time you whisper to me ….)
Before the final number Pete paid tribute to Mike Furlonger, a close friend and jazz enthusiast who passed away last year after a diagnosis with Motor Neurone Disease and invited the audience to express their appreciation in a collection for the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MDNA).  Whether Mark’s Booze Blues was an appropriate title is open, but the boppish number certainly gave the band the opportunity to stretch out with flowing solos – all enthusiastically received – by Mark, Andy and Russ (the loudest applause of the set) and Pete, a great close to a great gig.

A great reception too, many in the audience wanting them back, saying it was the best concert yet in the series, a complement repaid by Pete’s “What a lovely crowd to play for. It was a real pleasure to play here.” This was a polished performance, each player standing out. The musicians know each other inside out and it shows. OK, the A1(M) through Durham is not the highway to Monterey or the autoroute du midi, but the music was what it says on the tin - fresh, melodious and different – and you want to hear it again. Mission accomplished.
Brian E
PS Over £200 was raised for MNDA. If you want to add your support, follow this link 

No comments :

Blog Archive