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Bebop Spoken There

Orrin Evans: “Now, getting a teaching spot is the new record deal”. (DownBeat, November, 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

17502 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 776 of them this year alone and, so far, 14 this month (Nov. 5).

From This Moment On ...

November

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm.
Fri 08: TC & the Groove Family + Swannek + Knats @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 09: Moscow Drug Club @ Hamsterley Village Hall, Co. Durham DL13 3QF. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sat 09: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 10: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘second Sunday in the month’ residency.
Sun 10: Panharmonia @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £6.00.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Moscow Drug Club @ Lesbury Village Hall, nr. Alnwick NE66 3PP. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sun 10: SH#RP Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 11: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 11: Graham Hardy’s Eclectic Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 12: Matthew Forster Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.
Tue 12: Phil’s Elastic Band @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Free, but ticketed, book online.

Wed 13: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 13: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 13: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 13: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: corto.alto @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 7:45pm (doors 7:00pm). £14.00. + bf.

Thu 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Faye MacCalman & John Pope @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 14: Student Performances @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 4:00pm. Inc. Olly Styles (saxophone).
Thu 14: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 14: John Stowell & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Top class US/UK guitar duo!
Thu 14: King Bees @ The Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Superb Chicago blues band. Note, Struggle Buggy will no longer be appearing.
Thu 14: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Jeremy McMurray (keys); Kevin Eland (trumpet); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Adrian Beadnell (bass).

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

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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