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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

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: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
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.

Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 1:00-2:45pm. Free.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Jude Murphy & Alan Law @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free.
Sun 22: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Richard Herdman @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: Remy CB Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Remi, 2024 Newcastle Uni graduate, superb soul/blues voice!

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Album Review: Dave Stryker with Bob Mintzer and the WDR Big Band - Blue Soul

Guitarist Dave Stryker joined fellow American Bob Mintzer to play a varied selection of charts alongide Germany's world class WDR Big Band. The result - Blue Soul - is an enjoyable groove-laden take on familiar jazz/pop/soul standards with three Styrker originals and a Mintzer composition making the final cut of nine tracks. 

Stryker has released more than two dozen albums of his own and worked as sideman on countless others. Influences are brought to bear on this Strikezone Records CD. To begin at the end, the closing track, Stan's Shuffle, was written by his old boss of ten years or more, Stanley Turrentine. The midway point (track five), Stryker's own Blues Strut, features the man himself, Mintzer's tenor sax and Billy Test on organ. The latter recalls Stryker's earlier work with Jack McDuff. 

Three paragraphs in and scarcely a mention of the WDR. That's because it should be taken for granted that if the mighty German outfit is on a recording session it has to be good, and it is. Mintzer is the orchestra's principal conductor. Arranging charts for the WDR must be a challenge and a pleasure in equal measure with no such thing as a weak link in this band, soloists coming from every section (Karolina Starssmeyer, alto sax, Andy Hunter, trombone to name but two), the guest soloist laying down a blues groove, it all adds up to a polished 'big band with soloist' (ad)venture. 

From Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man and What's Going On? to Prince's When Doves Cry to Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman, the WDR under the direction of Mintzer make Blues Soul an 'easy' listen, 'easy' in the best sense of the word, the kind of album where you anticipate a twist, a turn, a solo, and, right on cue, it delivers. 
Russell

Blues Soul by Dave Stryker with Bob Mintzer and the WDR Big Band is available on Strikezone Records (8820).    

Dave Stryker (guitar); Bob Mintzer (conductor, arranger, tenor sax tracks 2, 5, 9); Wim Both Rob Bruynen, Andy Haderer, Ruud Breuls (trumpets); Ludwig Nuss, Raphael Klemm, Andy Hunter (trombones); Mattis Cederberg (bass trombone); Johan Hörlén, Karolina Srassmayer (alto sax); Olivier Peters, Paul Heller (tenor sax); Jens Neufang (baritone sax); Billy Test (piano, organ); John Goldsby (bass); Hans Dekker (drums) 

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