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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 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!"

Postage

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Friday, April 24, 2020

CD Review: Gabriele Heller – Nightshifts


Gabriele Heller (vocals, live sound mixes, percussion); Steve Glendinning (guitar, percussion); Wolfgang Weileder (guitar on 3 tracks).

This is such a good CD that I felt compelled to play it twice before writing the review and I enjoyed it even more the second time. The songs are a heady mix of cabaret tinged songs and jazz which are intriguing, disturbing, compassionate and even amusing by turns and always interesting. Steve as always does a grand job of appropriate accompaniment and Gabi, an experienced improvising actor, writer and teacher, interprets the lyrics with feeling and skill.


Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7 are the work of Heller and Glendinning, with poetry from Graham Mort on track 7;
Weileder contributes guitar to Heller's lyrics on tracks 2,4,and 8; track 9 gives us Heller's voice unaccompanied; track 6 is a medley of Heller's words with those of other writers; and listeners will of course recognise Billie Holiday's song at track 10, and the immortal words of Meeropol's Strange Fruit bring the album to a close.

Broken is a list of many broken things, including broken hearts, dreams, shoes and ankles, with the recording of the speaking clock suggesting broken sleep: indeed many of the songs have the suggestion of insomnia and unpleasant 'nightshifts'.

 The agitated vocals of Run ('baby run') repeated many times make the listener wonder what is being run from, and the guitar seems to run along; the title track seems to be about an unpleasant bout of insomnia, sung to a rumbling heartbeat sound and fragmented guitar, yet ending with a final letting go. Tomorrow Starts Today is a more gentle love song; Wallflower is a party scene with a soundtrack of voices, and the wallflower telling us that 'you know the way they shake their beautiful bodies'. 

One of the best tracks is number 6, a medley of songs about boats and ships and migrants who are desperately trying to escape, with clever electronic sounds producing 'water' noises; Electricity concerns that energy in all its forms, which suggested to me that someone was awake listening to household electrical noises; True Love is a lively request for love, amusing, with a steady clapping rhythm and Gabi's very adventurous, unusual scat. My Tears is sung a capella, a hymn-like tune with disturbing lyrics about 'dreaming to be dead' weighed down with heavy stones.

Listeners will be familiar with the last 2 tracks, track 10, Billie Holiday's plea for love, and then Strange Fruit, which manges to bring out the horror of the 'burning flesh' and 'scent of magnolia', with eerie guitar sounds and odd bell-like percussion.

A veritable tour de force. The album is available from April 2020.

 I'd like to see a gig featuring these songs when social distancing ends. And yes, the album is dedicated 'For all doctors, nurses and health workers, who work day and night to save our lives'. The real Nightshifters
 Ann Alex

Track list 1/ Broken Silence 2/ Run 3/ Nightshifts 4/ Tomorrow Starts Today 5/ Wallflower 6/Hope, My Ship, Little Boat 7/ Electricity 8/ True Love 9/ My Tears 10/ Tell Me More And More And Then Some 11/ Strange Fruit

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