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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 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

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Wed 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 11: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 11: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 11: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 12: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 12: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:30pm. £4.00. ‘A Great Day in Harlem’.
Thu 12: The Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Pete Tanton & co.
Thu 12: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Donna Hewitt, Bill Watson, Dave Archbold, Adrian Beadnell, Mark Hawkins.

Fri 13: Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Two pianos, two pianists! SOLD OUT!
Fri 13: Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Dilutey Juice @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.00. adv..
Fri 13: Ray Stubbs R & B All-stars @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Classic blues.

Sat 14: Jeff Barnhart’s Silent Film Fest @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 14: Customs House Big Band w. Ruth Lambert @ St Paul’s Centre, St Paul’s Gardens, Spennymoor DL16 7LR. 7:00pm (6:45pm doors). Tickets £10.00. from the venue or tel: 01388 813404. A ‘BYOB’ event.
Sat 14: Emma Wilson @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00. Acoustic blues.
Sat 14: Rat Pack - Swingin’ at the Sands @ Billingham Forum. 7:30pm.

Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Panharmonia @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Swing Manouche @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: John Hallam with the James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert!

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Saturday, April 25, 2020

CD Review: Bruno Heinen Trio - Out of Doors

Bruno Heinen (piano/Fender Rhodes); Andrea Di Biase (bass); 
Gene Calderazzo  (drums) 
(Review by Chris K)  

Make no mistake, some clever and significant stuff here from the Professor of Jazz Piano at Trinity Laban.  Heinen’s erudition is well established: his parents worked with Stockhausen in the 1970s, and a previous album saw his sextet work over Stockhausen’s Tierkreis (12 Signs of the Zodiac). With the pianist’s roots in impressionist classical music, this album is a suite using the same eight Hungarian folk melodies used by Bartók for his 1920 Op. 20, 8 Improvisations.   

So, you might imagine my trepidation listening to this new CD, and new trio, for the first time – thanks Lance!  

My fears were confirmed by the first track, What Happens Now?,  with sparse and repetitive piano over free drums, held together by the smoother bass of classically trained Di Biase, who also has a top pedigree in European jazz, having been part of Kenny Wheeler’s last group. 

The second, Devils’ Ditty,  is also far from straight ahead, with a nursery-rhyme scale tossed between piano and bass and twisted in time and structure, building to a frenzied drums and bass work out. Fool in the Grave stretches to long sections of arco bass, stretching my patience in the process.

The Wave, followed working a conversation between fragmented bass and piano over militaristic snare patterns from the lively Calderazzo.  

The second four tracks are a revelation though – and much easier listening, thank God! Look Before You Leap reprises the scale motif, but this time with a groove and lively counterpoint between Fender Rhodes and bass.  Past/present showcases Heinen’s distinctive playing style: blocky chords interspersed with right hand chords and runs – all in dreamily shifting metres, yet retaining a groove.  

The best is kept till last: the final tracks are up there with the most engaging and beautiful you could hope to hear. Mirror indulges Heinen’s solo piano, with limpid meanders evoking a pastoral Kit Downes. The closer, Homecoming, is a skipping and swirling romp in five (and/or seven?!) with the band intimately locked in to the catchiest tune you could imagine – most unexpected after the early numbers! 

Optimistically, the band plan to tour,  passing through Gosforth Civic Theatre on Thursday 2 July although that remains to be seen. I’d certainly give them a go on the basis of the second half of this album!  
Chris Kilsby 
Release date: 22.05.2020 Heinen Records HRBHCD01     Recorded September 2019  

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