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Bebop Spoken There

Steve Fishwick: “I can’t get behind the attitude that new is always somehow better than old” - Jazz Journal, April 15, 2019,

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...

Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

November

Tue 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval NE25 0AT. 12:30pm. ‘Afternoon Jazz Tea Party’ £12.00. Tickets from: 0191 237 3697.
Tue 28: Full Score & Durham University Jazz Orchestra @ St Oswald’s Church, Durham. 7:00pm. £8.00., £7.00. conc., £6.00. DSM. ‘Singing with a Swing’. In support of the Angel Trust.
Tue 28: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. £12.00., £10.00. Doors 7pm/Music 8pm.

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: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). Tickets: £25.00. inc. buffet. A Gatsby themed evening.
Thu 30: Jools Holland's R & B Orchestra @ Newcastle City Hall. 7:30pm.
Thu 30: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. Guest band night: Mark Toomey Quintet (Mark Toomey, sax; Paul Donnelly, guitar; Jeremy McMurray, keys; Peter Ayton, bass; Mark Robertson, drums). 9:00pm.

December
Fri 01: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 01: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 01: Paul Skerritt @ All Saints’ Church, Eastgate, Co. Durham. 7:00pm. Xmas Tree Fest.
Fri 01: Alligator Gumbo @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 01: Nu Sound Brass @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 01: Struggle Buggy w. Jim Murray @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 02: Paula Jackman's Jazz Masters @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 02: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 02: Abbie Finn Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm.
Sat 02: Tenement Jazz Band @ John Marley Centre, Newcastle. Swing Tyne Winter Social. £8.00. + bf. Advance purchase only, no admission at the door. BYOB. Lindy hop workshop from 11:00am. £39.00.
Sat 02: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Masham, Hartburn Village, Stockton. 7:00pm. Feat. Noel Dennis.
Sat 02: Classic Swing @ The Nuthatch, 9 - 11 Bedford St, Middlesbrough TS1 2LL. 7:00-9:00pm. Classic Swing in trio format.
Sat 02: Paul Skerritt w. Danny Miller Big Band @ Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm.
Sat 02: Vermont Big Band @ Whitley Bay FC. 7:30pm. £10.00. (inc. hot buffet). Tickets available from WBFC’s Seahorse pub club house.
Sat 02: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Ponteland Social Club, Northumberland. 7:30pm. £18.00 (inc. stotties & soup supper). A fundraiser for Hexham Constituency Labour Party.
Sat 02: Tom Remon & Laurence Harrison @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. Xmas party night inc. buffet & special raffle. £3.00.
Sat 02: Groovetrain @ The Unionist Club, Laygate, South Shields. 9:00pm.

Sun 03: The Central Bar Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. The Central Bar Quartet plays Lou Donaldson’s Gravy Train. Featuring Jamie Toms.
Sun 03: Paul Skerritt @ Smith’s Arms, Carlton, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:00pm.
Sun 03: Johnny Hunter Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 03: Jam session @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.

Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 04: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ People’s Kitchen, Bath Lane, Newcastle. From 5:30pm. On-street gig supporting the work of the People’s Kitchen charity. Wrap up warm! Donate!
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio w Lindsay Hannon @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Mon 04: Durham University Jazz Orchestra + Durham University Big Band @ Durham Castle DH1 3RW. 8:30pm. £6.00.; £5.00. concs; £4.00. DSM. ‘Jazzy Christmas’.

Saturday, February 08, 2020

Paris Review: Elie Martin-Charriere Group @ Le Baiser Sale – January 21 et Christophe Brunard Connexion @ MONK Taverne de Cluny - January 26


Elie Martin-Charriere (drums); Theo N'Guyen (saxophone); Martin Ferreyos (guitar); Roman Maresz (keyboards); Juan Villarrael (bass).

(Reviews by JC)

When Bob Dylan sang 'I lived with them on Montague Street/A basement down the stairs/There was music in the cafes at night/And revolution in the air' on Blood on the Tracks in 1975 he was probably talking about New Orleans but the same could be said about Paris in 2020.

The opportunity to spend a little time there was too good to miss even though the apartment was not in the basement but on the 3eme etage. However, there certainly was revolution in the air as the street the apartment was on was the main route from the Bastille to Place de la Republic and the scene of numerous marches.

Thousands of very angry public service workers would regularly take over both sides of the road throwing firecrackers and setting bins alight, watched by hundreds of seriously threatening riot police. It was very obvious that French workers are not going to allow Macron to reduce their pensions without a major fight.

As strikes meant the metro was off and there was no sign of le bus numero vingt-sept, it was shank's pony to get out and find the music in the cafes. This was no hardship though, as everybody knows walking around Paris is fabulous, even when dodging the various demonstrations - school kids, students, firemen, farmers on tractors and even ballet dancers outside the Royal Opera house. But the biggest risk to life and limb was the extra traffic in the cycle lanes where people had purloined any kind of wheeled transport they could get to move around: pedal bikes and electric bikes, push scooters and the latest electric versions, skateboards and hover boards and even police on roller skates.

Thankfully your erstwhile correspondent made it unscathed to Rue de Lombards which has no less than three different jazz clubs within soloing distance of each other - four, if you include the fact that Sunrise Sunset is two clubs in one; jazz upstairs and a funkier place down below - and I noticed that even the Irish pub on the street was advertising regular music sessions.

I was headed for Le Baiser Sale club ('the salty kiss' seems to be the polite translation) which the weekly Paris jazz guide had listed the category 'contemporary' beside the group leader's non-gender specific name (to English-speaking eyes anyway), Elie Martin-Charriere.  A singer maybe? piano player? No, it turned out to be a young (male) drummer with a group presenting a tribute to The Tony Williams Lifetime. Tony Williams formed the group in 1969, a mere 50 years ago - that's my kind of contemporary - and Martin-Charriere was born two years before Williams died - that's my kind of tribute artist.

I'm not over-familiar with the specific Lifetime oeuvre but I know the general jazz-rock fusion style and Martin-Charriere and his equally young guns powered into the music with real ferocity testing their already impressive techniques with some very fast playing. Martin Ferreyos on guitar demonstrated no little ability and much of the speed of the early McLaughlin and Juan Villarreal was very solid on bass but maybe lacked a little of the Joker-like grinning evil menace that Jack Bruce brought to both his demeanour and his playing. On keyboards Roman Maresz played some fine solos and leader Martin-Charriere performed with real assurance powering the band forward. Out front and centre, possibly the youngest member of the group, Theo N'Guyen, played some blistering sax with that easy confidence of youth. They produced a great sound. There was a small but appreciative audience of mainly young people at the gig and I wondered afterwards how many would now want to check out some Lifetime albums. I know I do.

Christophe Brunard (guitar); Julien Brunard (guitar/violin).

However, Paris to me always means the Hot Club de France of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli as it was the first LP I ever bought. Therefore my next foray found me in a place called MONK La Taverne de Cluny on the Left Bank (no relation to our Ouseburn venue as far as I know). Here Christophe Brunard and his son, Julien have a regular weekly gig in the bar ('gypsy' was the style indicator in my music guide). For the first set both were playing guitars, with Brunard jr. taking most of the main solos and he was an excellent musician rooted in the Hot Club style with fast, rippling, inventive solos but clearly showing a knowledge of later guitar developments. Brunard snr. provided much of the rhythmic chordal drive with added walking bass lines for good measure but also showing he was no slouch when it came to his turn to be out front.

In the second set Julien switched to violin to give a real touch of Reinhardt/Grappelli vibe and if anything he was even more accomplished on this instrument. He played with great technique and considerable emotional intensity. Again, the pair complemented each other beautifully and played (unsurprisingly) with a great deal of empathic musical understanding.

Although no titles were given in any language except 'musical' I was sure I recognised many of the pieces but as l'homme dit 'I never forget a tune but I've no idea what its name is'.
One thing I spotted about Julien is that he was wearing a tie-pin, a feature I have noticed with a number of jazz musicians, and in my experience a sign of a musician who pays close attention to both musical and sartorial details. Certainly true in this case.

Then it was back out in the night and a chance to participate in the adventure known as a late night Paris taxi drive, not because of demonstrations, but due to a number of reckless road-crossing revellers who had no idea how close they were to a possible life-changing experience (and I don't mean musical) as we zoomed past.
JC

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