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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

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

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.

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Elina Duni And Rob Luft @ Jazz Co-op Livestream May 17

Elina Duni (voice); Rob Luft (guitars, electronic effects)

A homely scene greeted us, Elina and Rob on the sofa with a few fairy lights behind, yet this was also an international gig, as shown by the names in the chat box and the greetings that Elina gave later, to people from France,  Albania, Kosovo, the USA. Excellent sound through my headphones and passable even without them.

 About 35 people listed as listening, enough to fill the jazz bar at the Globe – Alas! But this is a different sort of gig, which may continue in some form in the future, who knows?

First up was Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman which blended later into a folk song from Elina's native Albania, When You Appear at My Doorstep. Flowing guitar comments to the vocal lines with a very Eastern feel and the second song is sung beautifully, in Albanian, slowly reflective, a passionate repetitive chorus, ascending scales and jubilant guitar sounds. This outline doesn't do the performance much justice, but you can listen for yourself on YouTube.

Next came a love song from the mountains of Kosovo, the words were foreign but the sentiment came across. A complex song with many sections yet not difficult listening, repeated passionate phrases, singing the tune with the guitar but a few notes higher, very different from jazz variations, ending with the guitar sounding like a double bass. Flying Kites, an original, composed on the very sofa that we were looking at, (not an observation we could appreciate at an actual gig), drawn from Elina's childhood memories, and the guitar playing fast twisting riffs to imitate the kites.

Then came a typical folk song theme, the girl fancies a man she meets when getting water from the well, before remembering that she must return home to her mother. A fast skilled guitar over a slow song, with brilliant very high guitar notes to end.  

Another original (One Day In?); followed by a Charlie Haden/Abbey Lincoln number with echoing guitar. The duo showed their versatility with an out and out jazz standard,  I'm Glad There Is You. 

A final folk song, a love song about the moon, and the well-deserved encore, which was demanded in the chat box, Serge Gainsbourg's Couleur Cafe, done samba style, with Rob singing in harmony in the chorus, and an abundance of  guitar effects which sounded like quite a few guitars at once.

If you want more of these two musicians, and I bet you do, Rob's album, Life Is The Dancer, was out in April 2020, on Edition Records.  See www.robluft.bandcamp.com

Elina's last album, Partir, April 2018, is on ECM Records. See www.amazon.co.uk/elina-duni.
Ann Alex

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