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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

Fri 20: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-3:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 20: Baghdaddies @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Smokin’ Spitfires @ Platform 1, East Bedlington Community Centre. 7:00pm.
Fri 20: Pete Tanton’s Christmas @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Alligator Gumbo @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Abbie Finn’s Finntet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 20: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

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.

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

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Book Review: Joseph Jarman - Black Case Volume I & II: Return from Exile

(Review by Russell)

Joseph Jarman first compiled a spiral-bound version of Black Case Volume I & II in 1974. Three years later an expanded edition was published by Art Ensemble of Chicago Publishing Co.. Now, some twelve months after the death of the Art Ensemble of Chicago's saxophonist, composer, poet and member of the AACM, a reprint, with a new preface by Thulani Davis and an introduction by Brent Hayes Edwards, has been made available by Blank Forms Editions and After : Still.   

Poetry, prose and photographs from 1960 through to the mid-seventies chart Jarman's global travels and development as an artist. Principally known as a member of the feted Art Ensemble of Chicago, Black Case Volume I & II is a welcome addition to the literature of the Black Arts Movement. Multi-instrumentalist Jarman offers an insight to his childhood years on Chicago's South Side; racism, urban alienation and fishing trips with his father.  

In his early twenties Jarman wound up in Texas. In Volume I Jarman writes: El Paso - spring 1959 - i arrive on the hot summer Greyhound from the East, full of dust and silence. High off - pills, smack, other deadly joys, mute, silent and motionless. A page of poetry, a page of prose, perhaps a photograph, Jarman committed words to paper as the spirit took him; on one page socio-political comment: BLACK MUSIC IS BLACK MUSIC and always will be, on another page spiritual or religious thought is offered: do not fight life, rather live it freely/this is the message of GREAT BLACK MUSIC embrace it and sing-you will feel better and you will learn through your own life to praise GOD

Service in the US military during the 1950s appeared to have had a profound effect on Jarman. Traumatised by military (mis)adventure in Asia (sustaining a severe leg injury) a transfer to an army band based in Germany (acquiring an alto saxophone along the way) proved to be a better option. In his excellent introduction to this new edition Brent Hayes Edwards recounts Jarman telling music historian Paul Steinbeck that 'El Paso' (much of Jarman's poetry was untitled) was a first attempt at writing poetry. In a few short years the Art Ensemble of Chicago would become the perfect platform for his literary talents. 

The Art Ensemble's penchant for theatrical costume, surrealist pranks, poetry and, of course, music, nurtured Joseph Jarman's creativity for several decades (not withstanding a sabbatical to study Buddhism and aikido). The full title of Jarman's book - Black Case Volume I & II Return from Exile - points to the author's spiritual journey from self-imposed exile (Brent Hayes Edwards calls it 'internal alienation') from the supposed 'real' world. 

Those lucky enough to have witnessed Jarman in full flow with the Art Ensemble of Chicago will, no doubt, have fond memories. In her preface to this new edition of Black Case I & II Thulani Davis recalls first visiting Jarman's home: The first time I visited Joseph he was listening to Jimmy Cliff and Sidney Bechet. He played me 78s of Charlie Parker. Just life as it should be, it seemed.                   
Russell
  
Black Case Volume I & II: Return from Exile by Joseph Jarman is published by Blank Forms Editions (Brooklyn, NY) and After : Still (Madison, WI)ISBN: 978-1-7337235-3-4 

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