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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 ...

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.

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Tonight's Blue Note: Freddie Hubbard - The Night of the Cookers

Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard (trumpets); James Spaulding (alto sax/flute); Harold Mabern Jr. (piano); Larry Ridley (bass); Pete La Roca (drums); Big Black (congas).

Four sides recorded live in Brooklyn at the Club La Marchal in 1965 and issued on two LPs, sees the label's top two trumpet players of the day tearing it up much to the delight of the crowd. Unfortunately, like so many live sessions, the atmosphere doesn't quite come across so well in the living room.


Clare Fischer's Pensativa has Morgan and Hubbard seemingly intent on  seeing how many variations they can make out of Camptown Races in a mad free-fall that goes on for about 10 minutes. This was the kind of Pier 6 brawl normally associated with tenor players and longshoremen! If I'd had a ringside seat - and I use the term advisedly - I'd have been on my feet cheering. Who won? Who cares? The horns were locked so intently I lost track of who was who! Underneath it all, Big Black was having his own Latin party.

Hubbard dropped out for Walkin' and Morgan was initially more restrained with Spaulding the one going for the jugular on alto. He'd been listening to Dolphy and Trane I guess although he also slipped in one of Bird's favourite quotes - Country Gardens. This really was a walk on the wild side!

La Roca, Big Black, Spaulding and Morgan kicked the fours around and even in the relative tranquility of my music space the furniture seemed to be jumping - or maybe it was the neighbours knocking (I joke, I've got good neighbours - everybody needs them these days!)

Morgan sits out on Volume Two's opener which, according to Jepson, took place the day before. Hubbard is at his finest here. Jodo, an original, sees him cutting loose without having to meet the challenge of one of his peers and he blows like Armageddon is around the corner. It wasn't then but maybe it is now! However, if Freddie thought it was safe to go into the water he was wrong. Spaulding was firing on all cylinders and he made it clear that he too was up for a battle.

Immune to what was going on up front and behind, Mabern insured a degree of sanity prevailed before La Roca kicked seven shades out of the kit and  Big Black doubled that on congas!

Breaking Point saw Mabern at his finest and how grateful we surely are that he was on the scene for another 54 years. After Harold's solo it, once more became the Big Black Show!

A couple of albums I would surely cherish if I'd been in a club in Brooklyn in 1965 and, even now, they're not without charm although the excitement of a live gig that would have had you dancing on the tables cannot quite be replicated by dancing on your IKEA Chippendale flat pack coffee table without a safety net.

If you're strapped, seek out volume One.
Incidentally, being a live recording, the sound quality is far below the normal Blue Note studio sessions.
Lance.
PS: This is one of my favourite album titles - not least because it inspired a band of veteran Blue Note Alumni - The Cookers

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