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Bebop Spoken There

Delfeayo Marsalis: "Slide Hampton once told me that it's not always the person that is playing the highest or playing the fastest that's making the greatest impact." - (DownBeat March 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

15229 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 248 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (March 20).

From This Moment On ...

March

Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 20: Central Bar Quintet plays Wes Montgomery @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 7:30pm. Feat. Joe Steels.

Tue 21: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 21: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Jacob Egglestone (guitar); Jamie Watkins (bass guitar); Bailey Rudd (drums).

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Traveller's Rest, Cockerton. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public). Note change of venue - this week only.
Wed 22: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Thu 23: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Bar Loco, Newcasatle. From 6:30pm 'til late. Free. Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra jam session. All welcome (students & non-students).
Thu 23: Kerrin Tatman + John Garner & John Pope @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 23: Sunna Gunnlaugs & Julia Hülsmann @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm. A two-piano gig. A Sage Gateshead-JNE promotion.
Thu 23: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano.
Thu 23: Sleep Suppressor @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00., £8.00. adv. Upstairs.
Thu 23: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: FILM: Mo' Better Blues @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Fri 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Scarth Hall, Staindrop, Co. Durham. 8:00pm. £10.00.
Fri 24: Archipelago + Bulbils @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 25: Vermont Big Band @ Walker Community Centre, Walker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Fundraiser for Benfield Juniours Football Club. Hot food available, BYOB.
Sat 25: John Logan & Friends @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rat Pack, Motown etc. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

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.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

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

Friday, January 17, 2020

CD Review: Jason Yeager - New songs of Resistance

(Review by Dave Brownlow)

New Songs Of Resistance is Professor of Piano at Berklee  College of Music Jason Yeager’s latest mix of protest, jazz, classical and Latin American folk music. It is his attempt to draw more attention to the anger and confusion felt by the peoples of Latin America and the United States in their current situation. Jason attempts to speak truth through the power of music in the form of resistance as previously achieved by such jazz masters as John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Max Roach in the not-too-distant past.

In his group he uses three distinct vocalists and a sextet of accomplished, like-minded musicians who perform with authenticity and fire in an album of thirteen tracks of original compositions and songs from four Latin American composers using the original Spanish and Portuguese lyrics as a sign of respect.

Gracias a la Vida features Erini’s first vocal – clear-toned, cool yet passionately delivered. Fleet solos from the leader, trumpeter Boni and drummer Walker are integrated with ensemble passages using flugelhorn, cello, trumpet, clarinet and bass-clarinet over a strong rhythmic pulse with Latin melancholia. The Facts is a fiery, ominous, unsettling performance with a jarring melody/vocal of clashing melodic intervals from Malek over a march-style rhythm. Erini again handles the plaintive vocal on Somos Cinco Mil a sombre, highly-charged, dramatic original from Yeager. An Arabic-influenced cello solo against the leader’s ‘Tyneresque’ chords provides a most emotive moment. Interlude: Uncovering is a brief, gentle piano solo in an ‘Impressionist-style’ using Debussy-influenced chords and note patterns.

Another Yeager piece Mother Earth is a more contemporary composition dominated by a long declamatory trumpet solo from Boni and a workout from the composer himself whose next song, In Search Of Truth, has Malek speaking the writers uncomfortable lyrics – “Do you deny the past? Do you deny the truth? Do you deny the warming planet? We must be better than this!” This piece is reminiscent of a George Russell composition – avant-garde in conception with a challenging format. A calm start increasingly becomes more agitated – a disturbing listen indeed which also includes a “conversation” between wordless vocal and piano as its finale. A second solo piano solo Interlude: Resistance is an improvisation over a two-chord vamp, leading us to a stunning track Cinco Sylos Igual where again Erini handles the vocal. A mournful minor theme – the words came from songwriter Victor Jara just before he and thousands of other Chilean intelligentsia were murdered by Pinochet in 1973 in the Santiago Stadium. Protest has the background noise of a crowd ‘protest march’ and the piano/bass/drums trio incorporates stabbing, clashing chords in a short but effective track. 

Reckoning has a cold, word-less vocal from Malek setting the scene for clarinet, piano and drum solos. The last solo piano interlude Interlude:Factitudes  has a brooding, sombre intensity with Yeager’s very effective use of the whole of the piano range giving it dissonance.The album ends on a cheerful note with a Samba-style Apesar de Voce with Mirella Costa taking her only featured vocal  in a more overtly ‘jazzy’ offering. The leader provides a melodically appropriate solo which gives this final track an optimistic feel – pointing to better days ahead.  

“New Songs of Resistance” is on Outside In Music OIM 1924  and is available now from – outsideinmusic.com    or
Jasonyeager.com                                              
Dave Brownlow

Jason Yeager (piano/leader/writer/arranger); Fernando Huergo (electric bass); Mark Walker (drums/perc) + Milena Casado (flugel 1,5,9.); Cosimo Boni (trumpet 2,6,); Matthew Stubbs (clarinet & bass clarinet 1,2,5,9,11); Naseem Alatrash (cello 1,3,5,9); Erini, Mirella Costa, Farayi Malek (voices).

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