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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 ...

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.

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: 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, June 20, 2020

Album review: Rudresh Mahanthappa - Hero Trio

Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto sax); Francois Moutin (bass); Rudy Royston (drums). 

I'd heard glowing reports about this album and, I'm pleased to say the fluorescence is fully justified although I did initially view it with the gravest of doubts. Why? They wear masks! Not PPE type masks but the sort of face covering favoured by Batman and Robin or, in an earlier age, Dick Turpin. Well all I can say is that they certainly stand and deliver.

The title, Hero Trio, derives from the album's theme which is to pay tribute to Princeton director of Jazz Mahanthappa's heroes - those musicians who have influenced him. 



The heroes are diverse: Three Charlie Parker pieces (Red Cross, Barbados and Dewey Square), Stevie Wonder is represented with Overjoyed and Trane's 26-2 is merged with Barbados thus linking up two of the major figures in modern jazz. 

The standards I Can't Get Started and I'll Remember April were inspired, not by Bunny Berigan or George Shearing but, the former by Sonny Rollins and Benny Carter and the latter by Lee Konitz. Keith Jarrett was the original brains behind The Windup whilst Ornette Coleman composed Sadness and June Carter  ignited Ring of Fire for her husband Johnny Cash.

Mahanthappa is one of the most exciting alto players I've heard in recent years and he does his heroes proud. The lack of a chordal instrument offers a chance of freedom which the alto player grabs with both hands. Of course, without a sound bass and drums, freedom could quickly turn into chaos! Not so here. Moutin and Royston are top draw. Some of the bass solos are as good as any I've ever heard - and I do mean ever! Royston is no mere time-keeper although he does keep time but he is also as much an integral part of the trio as the other two often laying down a line that is as melodic as it is rhythmic.

Hero Trio was released yesterday (June 19) by Whirlwind Recordings (WR4760) and if isn't top of at least one of the Jazzwise charts in the mag's August edition (July's already on the street*) I'll eat my virtual hat!
Lance.

* July's Jazzwise, incidentally, contains a letter from one of the Jazz Coop's directors, Debra Milne).

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