Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

June

Sat 03: Newcastle Record Fair @ Northumbria University, Newcastle NE8 8SB. 10:00am-3:00pm. Admission: £2.00.
Sat 03: Pedigree Jazz Band @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 03: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Sue Ferris. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 03: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 03: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 04: Jam No. 18 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Album Review: Tony Kofi - Another Kind of Soul

Tony Kofi (alto sax); Andy Davies (trumpet); Alex Webb (piano); Andrew Cleyndert (bass); Alfonso Vitale (drums)
(Review by Chris K)

A storming romp of a live recording by Tony Kofi, the hard blowing UK alto star paying a tribute to his inspiration, Cannonball Adderley.  Unusually, although there are CD copies for review, this album is designed for release on vinyl, so weighs in at a relatively lightweight 35 minutes duration. That’s the only lightweight thing about it though, as the band waste no time getting stuck in straight off with two short numbers,  A Portrait of Cannonball and  Operation Breadbasket, by Webb and Kofi respectively. The helter-skelter full-throated solos from Kofi and Davies set the tone for the rest of the album.


I confess to a certain disdain for much alto playing in the modern era, preferring the fuller tone and range of the tenor. This album has banished that notion though swept aside by Kofi’s famed raw power, with visceral N’awlins squawks and octave note bending punctuating fluid but high octane solos.

The title track Another Kind of Soul is the first of Adderley’s canon to get the Kofi treatment, with a pacy run through of the 1957 bop classic, which is remarkable for brother Nat’s upper register cornet pyrotechnics, matched by Kofi and Davies for energy and dexterity.  Kofi and co. can turn it down and play ballads too: a lovely Stars Fell on Alabama evokes the Coltrane and Cannonball 1964 version.

The band really hit their stride with the last three Cannonball classics.  Things are Getting Better (1959) comes complete with raucous carousing alto, a great piano solo from Webb and a solo outing for the immaculate Cleyndert on bass.  The top notch rhythm section also come to the fore catching the bluesy dance rhythm of Adderley’s immortal 1960 Sack O’ Woe. 

And how else would you close other than with Adderley’s signature Work Song? Often butchered as a cheesy blues, Kofi’s crew bring this to life in the authentic hard bop style of the 1960 original, with fine interplay and subtlety throughout the band.

 If you’re after fine and faithful interpretation of hard bop heaven, this is the album for you. Regardless of your taste, live they’d be a blast!  The band planned to tour the benighted south, nearest to our northern fastness being Hull Jazz Festival 17.07.2020.
Chris Kilsby

Release date: 23 April 2020.  Recorded live at Luton’s Bear Club in Nov./Dec. 2019
“The album is available in limited edition  180gm vinyl — the medium of Adderley’s era — to best replicate the ambiance of this remarkable live recording, and in digital format.”
Listen/buy LP or digital  (no CD!)  

No comments :

Blog Archive