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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: 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.

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Album review: Thelonious Monk Quartet - MONK: Palo Alto - New date for release!

Charlie Rouse (tenor sax); Thelonious Monk (piano); Larry Gales (bass); Ben Riley (drums).

Last year saw some previously unreleased Coltrane albums surface, this year it's Monk's turn.

All the great jazz musicians from Louis to Bird to Trane to Ornette and beyond had periods when, rightly or wrongly, it was defined as being their classic line-up. Although Monk recorded with Bird, Diz, Trane and Rollins among others it was his long association with Rouse where it all seemed to come together and this live recording from October 1968 is proof if indeed further proof should be needed.

Monk and Rouse, like Desmond and Brubeck, Mulligan and Baker. Brown and Land, are among the great modern jazz partnerships and to turn up a gem such as this, 50 years on, makes me wonder how much more is gathering dust in vaults and attics.

A mix of Monk classics and a couple of standards delighted the lunchtime high school audience in Palo Alto, California. How the Monk Quartet came to be playing at a school in Palo Alto is one of those jazz moments that will be go down in legend and, even now, I bet there are many elderly Americans saying "I was there" even if they happened to be in New York at the time!*

All  47 minutes of the concert are on the album: Ruby, My Dear; Well You Needn't; Blue Monk and Epistrophy are by the quartet whilst Don't Blame Me and I Love You (Sweetheart of All My Dreams) are piano solos - the latter quite dazzling, the former a little bit tongue in cheek! The 14 minutes of Blue Monk surely ranks as the definitive with Rouse in blistering form. Gales and Riley also shine solowise. 
Tremendous!

Impulse have the album scheduled for release on Sept. 18. Order now online or from your friendly neighbourhood record shop.
Lance

In the autumn of 1968, a sixteen-year-old boy named Danny Scher had a dream. He wanted to bring the renowned jazz pianist Thelonious Monk and his quartet to play a benefit concert at his high school in Palo Alto, California to raise funds for his school and to help bring about racial unity in his community. Armed with little more than a telephone, posters, a persuasive pitch, an impressive knowledge of jazz and an iron-willed determination, Scher made the concert happen.

After miraculously securing Monk’s services to perform on Sunday,  October 27, 1968, for $500, Scher initially had trouble selling tickets and convincing people that Monk would even show up. With many twists and turns along the way, including Scher’s older brother having to drive to San Francisco to bring the quartet to the school, and hundreds of people waiting in the school’s parking lot to await Monk’s arrival before purchasing their $2 tickets, the concert went ahead, sold out, and was a triumph. 

“It was a total pleasure,” says Scher, whose two idols in his youth were Monk and Duke Ellington. “There was nothing odd. I loved Monk, I loved his music, and I loved producing. It was great seeing Monk dancing around the stage and then coming back to the piano when it was the right time. There was zero drama.”

1 comment :

Mike Farmer said...

Great review and being a Monk and Charlie Rouse fan ever since I saw them at the Free Trade Hall Manchester I can't wait to hear this CD. This reminds me of a series of concerts years ago at the Octogon Theatre Bolton which were promoted by a sixteen year old schoolboy. He put on poets,be-bop, avant guard, trad bands etc. They were well attended. Keep the bop flame burning Lance!

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