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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

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).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Saturday, May 16, 2020

CD Review: Ron Davis' Symphronica - Instrumental Music Liberation Front

Ron Davis (piano); Kevin Barrett (guitars/ loops); Aline Homzy, Brielle Goheen (violins); Mike Downes/Louis Simào (bass); Steve Heathcoate (drums/perc.); Laurence Schaufele (viola); Beth Silver (cello).

Ron Davis is a man with a mission - to liberate instrumental music. He points out that the history of western music is one of the instrumental living in harmony with the vocal whilst also stressing that, in recent years, instrumental music has become almost invisible in comparison to vocal music.

This is an interesting opinion and one that I am sure many, myself included, will contest.

Certainly the pop world is 99% vocally loaded but this is nothing new. You only have to go back to the 1940s when the then President of the American Federation of Musicians James Petrillo called the first of two recording bans which saw musicians sidelined from the studios and led to singers such as Sinatra recording with choirs as opposed to bands and orchestras. The Sinatra phenomenon led the way for vocalists such as Como, Laine, Mitchell, Ray, Elvis and, ultimately, The Beatles to sound the death knell for, with the occasional exception - The Shadows and the occasional trad band - instrumental combos in the charts.

However, the jazz world is a wholly different ball game and jazz instrumentals far outnumber jazz vocal recordings. Not that I'm advocating one against the other - just making an observation.

Ron Davis' Symphronica not only seeks equality for instrumental music but he also attempts to merge jazz with classical music(s), i.e. European, Québecois, Sephardic, Manouche etc.

Do they succeed? I think they do. Rather than approaching this with any pre-conceived ideas, I came to this as an album to listen to and enjoy rather than study the blurb which may have put me off from even listening to it! I'm glad I didn't. There's some lovely piano playing from Davis - his Sergio's Shuffle, inspired by Prokofiev, is pure barrel-house - and some fine fiddling from Homzy. Brahms, Django, Stravinsky and Handel are just some of the other 'names' that figure in the mix - Paul Whiteman it isn't!

It's currently available via the usual suspects or, if you live in Canada, a record store near you (if there is one and it's open!)
Lance

1 comment :

Ron Davis said...

I want to thank you for your review of my new record "Instrumental Music Liberation Front" on bebop spoken here. Not because it was complimentary. That's a bonus. Rather because it was crafted with such thought. I'm grateful that you took the time and devoted the mindshare to put it into words.

So, thank you.

I should add that I agree with your point about jazz being predominantly instrumental at present. My greater point is that jazz itself (like classical - also predominantly instrumental) has been squeezed out of the popular music marketplace. As you know, jazz was THE popular music for many decades. Then, although it had to make room for Elvis, The Beatles and their successors, it remained fairly present in the 60s and 70s (Herbie, Miles and others had pop chart hits). Once the 80s come along however, boom. Jazz becomes marginalized. So, while jazz today may be 75% (let's say) instrumental, it holds only 2% of the listening market.

I could go on and on, but I shall spare you my ranting.

Keep up the great work on your blog. Please look me up if you are ever in Toronto. Pints are on me.

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