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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.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Album Reviews: Joel Fass - Melody Messenger & Jam for Eddie Diehl


Born and raised in the Carnarsie section of Brooklyn, jazz guitarist and composer/songwriter Joel Fass has been playing for nearly fifty years. The range of his experience coupled with his love for American Song is demonstrated fluently throughout these "exemplary" recordings. Fass has played with the likes of Eddie Diehl, Bob Dorough, Bill Takas, Chris Anderson and Hadda Brooks, to name a few.

Melody Messenger is a solo guitar outing featuring a wondrous variety of popular songs from the 1930s to the present. Willie Dixon's My Babe, Harold Arlen's Last Night When We Were Young and Gershwin's Lady Be Good  comfortably rub shoulders with Stevie Wonder's Lookin’ for Another Pure Love and Lennon/McCartney's Because. Who'd a thunk it but it works.

For good measure, Fass has also resurrected a few lesser known Broadway gems like Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle, Charles Strouse's Once Upon a Time and Cy Coleman's When in Rome. All excellent jazz vehicles for improvisation with distinctive melodic character. Fass has also added a compostion of his own entitled Shelter - welcome indeed. The lyrics of which are published in the liner notes (just in case any aspiring vocalist would like to give it a whirl, Joel adds...) All of which are given unique and distinctive treatments in the guitarist’s creative hands with original and effective chordal reharmonisations.


Jam For Eddie Diehl welcomes the talents of two guitarists duo-ing with Fass - Sheryl Bailey and Ray Macchiarolla. Both of whom rise to the occasion with aplomb with their perceptive and supportive accompanying. Their sterling solo turns also sparkle.


Another pleasantly variegated batch of American tunedom prevails including Ellington's Reflections in D, Dizzy's Tin Tin Deo, Bird's, Buzzy all easily hobnob with Izzy Baline's (Irving Berlin) What'll I Do?, Stevie's Blame it On the Sun and Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues, for cryin out loud! A most welcome inclusion are three Fass originals, two of which were "on the spot" inventions between him and Macchiarolla. Clothed with catchy, droll titles like E's Minor, Ah's Grow'd Up and Your Call Is Very Important To Me lend this disc some humour and light heartedness that is also such a winning feature of Fass' character and persona.


The liner notes on Melody Messenger include some very complimentary quotes and testimonials from leading NYC jazz guitarists on Fass's efforts. These include Gene Bertoncini, James Chirillo and Peter Bernstein.


All of which are more than backed up by "what it says on the tin" as they say. A very impressive recording debut from a talented and experienced guitarist and bodes extremely well for future releases. We look forward to the next one - sooner than later, please.

Frank Griffith


Exemplar Records - No recording dates listed

3 comments :

joel fass said...

Thank you, sir.

I did want to mention a few things:

1. Old pal Bobby Lenti did a first-rate job recording and editing us at his Lansdale, PA home studio.
2. Guitarists Freddie Bryant and Kevin McNeal provided fine notes for the Diehl Cd.
3. Jams for Eddie Diehl has as last track the man himself, live in trio with Bill Takas, bass, and Bob Dorough sitting in on piano---Zinno, NYC, 1983. It was fitting he have the last word, so here he is stretching out lovingly and swingingly on Charlie Parker's Buzzy.
4. Melody Messenger was recorded over 11 years, mostly at Bobby's studio, from 2008-2019 (Last Night When We Were Young was done on a student's no-name acoustic which sound I liked in 2008, BOYA Studios, NJ...

Joel Fass said...

Jams for Eddie Diehl was recorded in 2017, except for Reflections in D, 2019...

Gabe Preston said...

I agree 100% with this review! Joel undoubtedly knows the sources in and out, and it really shows in his consistency of melodic lyricism and compositional harmonic language.

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