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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 ...

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.

Sat 10: Miners' Picnic @ Woodhorn, Ashington. Music inc. Northern Monkey Brass Band (3:00-3:50pm); New York Brass Band (4:00-4:55pm).
Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Jeremy McMurray's Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Ropner Park, Stockton TS18 4EF. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Tonight's Blue Note: The Fabulous Fats Navarro Vol. 2

One of the earlier Blue Notes, it has a lot of fond memories for me not least because of the presence of Wardell Gray - my first saxophone hero! Back in the day when Wardell and Dexter were tearing it up on Central Avenue blowing The Chase, going by the recorded evidence, my preference was for Wardell's lighter, more subtle, approach. 

Of course this was before Dexter  Gordon's resurgence when most tenor sax players were swept aside by his overpowering hands-on attack. However, by this time, Wardell had gone to a finer place but not without leaving behind a significant legacy, of which this LP forms a small part.


Also on the date was Allan Eager, one of the most underrated of the white tenor players (Brew Moore was another). Eager had a very light tone - a fore runner of Warne Marsh? If he'd dedicated his life to music who knows but that Eager could have been The Man! However, apart from his heroin addiction which was par for the course in those days, Eager drifted off into other pursuits. Ski/riding instructor, racing car driver and, it was said, gigolo.

I saw Eager at a North Sea Festival where he played fine and at a club near Covent Garden where he didn't. It was empty and, to quote Ronnie Scott, "The bouncers weren't chucking them out they were chucking them in". On this album he offers the same contrast to Wardell as Wardell did to Dexter.

On trumpet is Fats Navarro who never made a bad record and, alongside  him, another trumpet man, Howard McGhee. The record brings together two of the greatest bebop trumpet players of the late 1940s. Dizzy may have won the polls but, trust me, he was in a photo finish with these two whilst Miles,  must have thought about taking up astronomy. Listen to them blowing Double Talk - has there ever been two trumpet players trading choruses like this?
Lance
Tadd Dameron Septet: Fats Navarro (trumpet); Wardell Gray, Allan Eager (tenor saxes); Tadd Dameron (piano); Curley Russell (bass); Kenny Clarke (drums); Chano Pozo (bongo).
----- 
McGee-Navarro Boptet: Fats Navarro, Howard McGhee (trumpets); Ernie Henry (alto sax); Milt Jackson (piano/vibes); Curley Russell (bass); Kenny Clarke (drums).

4 comments :

Steve Andrews said...

Fats Navarro - my absolute favourite modern jazz trumpet player! I "got" Fats years before I "got" Dizzy; I think it's because he is, on the one hand, so "hot" - he never flags or coasts in his choruses, but at the same time he's so melodic. By the way, I do get Diz…...it just took me a while, and, of course, when I was a kid I was deeply fascinated by Bird, not some trumpet player who happened to be on the record, too!

Steve T said...

Dizzy claimed Fats was the best of the bebop trumpeters, though I think it was a bit like SinAtra saying Tony Bennett was the best of the crooners.
In what way is this better than vol 1 Lance? A significantly more expensive item.

Lance said...

A) Because I don't have Volume 1, and B) Wardell Gray isn't on Volume 1. Admitedly Sonny Rollins is on Volume 1 but it was a very young Sonny.

David Brownlow said...

'Fabulous' Fats Navarro - aptly named ! What a player - great tone,imaginative ideas, great long lines,seemingly effortlessly soaring up into the trumpet stratosphere, too good for Bird's Quintet.
Lance, you have him playing on BSH - "Things we did last summer" with a JATP group - well worth another listen.......

from Dave B.

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