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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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
The 10: Classic Swing @ Carlisle Rugby Club, Warwick Rd., Carlisle. 8:30pm. £9.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: The Jazz Quartet + Stratosphonic @ Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £15.00. A Rotary Club of Hexham event. The Jazz Quartet (Jude Murphy & co), Stratosphonic (blues/rock). CANCELLED!
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 11: Mo Scott Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 12: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Michael Woods @ Victoria Tunnel, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv.). Country blues guitar & vocals.
Sat 12: Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.28, £11.16, £9.04. A two-track recording launch gig.
Sat 12: Stuart Turner @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rockabilly, rhythm & blues etc. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 12: Lapwing Jazz Trio @ The Ship Inn, Low Newton. 8:00pm. Free. New trio: Paula Whitty, Richard Herdman, Jude Murphy.

Sun 13: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Emma Wilson @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 13: Catfish Keith @ The Cluny. 7:00pm. Country blues.
Sun 13: Cath Stephens & Paul Grainger @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Stephens & Grainger, one third of a triple bill.
Sun 13: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 14: Black is the Color of My Voice @ Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by Nina Simone, performed by Nicholle Cherrie.

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano), Paul Grainger (double bass), Bailey Rudd (drums).

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Saturday, August 29, 2020

Charlie Parker - Live Bird by Lewis Watson

I have two older brothers and the music we listened to at home was, like that of many other white working class households of the 1960’s, the Blues and the great Soul singers of the time. So one minute I was listening to Howlin’ Wolf the next Otis Redding. We also listened to British bands such as John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, in all of its various line ups. As well as this our Mother was a big Ray Charles fan so, all in all, I had early exposure to some great music.

So how did my exposure to jazz come about? I was around eleven years old when my brother Gerry, then fifteen, came home one day with three LP’s; Charles Mingus’ - Mingus Presents Mingus, Archie Shepp’s - The Magic of Ju-Ju and John Coltrane’s - Live at the Village Vanguard. Again, explosive music! I was hooked, it had an impact on me that is difficult to explain. It wasn’t just the sound, there was a physical impact. If you haven’t heard those particular records, treat yourself. The Mingus, is for me, one of those essential recordings that should be in the collection of any serious Jazz fan.

About eighteen months after this I had the chance to take up a musical instrument at school. I began to play the saxophone, under the tutelage of a wonderful man called Mr. Cutherbertson (Jimmy). My first saxophone was a plastic Grafton like the ones used by Ornette Coleman and Charlie Parker, the school had three of them. The Jazz albums I heard introduced me to Eric Dolphy, Archie Shepp and John Coltrane and wonderful players like Alan Skidmore, Dick Heckstall- Smith and Fathead Newman, on recordings by John Mayall and Ray Charles, but I had still not heard Parker.

Then I saw a photograph of Charlie Parker in the Melody Maker and read the review of a recent release. I can’t remember what the album was and nor do I remember the reviewer. It may have been Max Jones, Richard Williams or maybe Chris Welch, the Melody Maker had some great writers. But it inspired me to find out more and to hear this Charlie Parker.

This was a great time to discover Parker. The studio recordings were being reissued. The Dial sessions where being made available by an English fan, Tony Williams, through his Spotlite label and the recordings that Parker made for Norman Granz’ Verve records, were being issued at the rate of one a month, for eight months, each one costing 60p. This was, incidentally, the weekly cost of my school lunches. So, once a month for eight months, I kept my dinner money, sorry mam!! and bought the next volume in the series. By the way, I still managed to get my lunch I wasn’t going to starve!

But for all the activity involving the studio recordings the most important releases were the bootleg albums of his live performances. And there where many albums being released on small labels like ‘Crazed Olaf Records’ and ‘Hi Hat’ or the ones released by someone in Edinburgh on the S.C.A.M. (Specially Collected American Music) label.

Most of these purchases involved mail order, places like Chris Wellard, Doug Dobell’s and Honest Jon’s Records, paid for with a postal order bought from the post office.

Over the years I have so often heard people complain about the fidelity, or lack of it, with these recordings and yes some are challenging but many are remarkably well recorded. Even the ones which take a little more effort deserved to be listened to though. These recordings give that valuable insight into those truly spontaneous events that really only happen in live performance.
And they also give us the opportunity to hear the development of Charlie Parker, by virtue of these location recordings, going back to his time with the Jay McShann orchestra; continuing through the 1940’s and taking us up to just a few months before his death. We can hear him in sessions in people’s apartments, we can hear him in Los Angeles, just before his breakdown, and indeed we can hear him on release from the Camarillo State Hospital playing in the apartment of one Chuck Copley. Also, the many recordings of radio broadcasts from clubs like the ‘Royal Roost’, ‘The Three Deuces’ ‘Cafe Society’ and of course ‘Birdland’. The latter being the location of a broadcast with Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell in March 1951 with Roy Haynes and Tommy Potter completing this wonderful group.

There are many great performances and a few where it sounds as though Charlie had had one sherry too many. I have a few favourites among all of these recordings. I’ll mention just three that I particularly like and keep returning to fairly regularly. 

The first comes from the first live album I bought  Bird is Free the track is Lester Leaps In the ideas gush from his saxophone, exuberance doesn’t cover it, pure joy! The track runs at just under five minutes and it’s all Bird. I can’t imagine that anybody could listen to this without smiling. This, and the rest of that concert, has since been reissued with much improved sound as The Complete Legendary Rockland Palace Concert 1952.

Next there is a version of Embraceable You recorded in the ‘Chez Paree' nightclub Montreal in1953. Composer John Warren remembers the occasion of Parker being in his home town and of trying to attend one of the gigs but being refused admission because he was under age, so close but……………! There are lines that he plays in this solo that sound to me like an indication of things to come, some really beautiful dark lines. And finally, Anthropology from the aforementioned Birdland broadcast with Gillespie et al. Great bebop.

So, if you haven’t already experienced them, and you are serious about this music, don’t neglect these live recordings. Get your headphones on and you’ll find that your ears will filter out a lot of the extraneous sound and fill in some of the missing sonic information. Your efforts will be rewarded. If you are a student of the music then don’t just listen, get your pencil and manuscript paper out and start writing it down. I know there are transcription books out there but do your own you will learn more - and save money!

We should thank all those people like Dean Benedetti and his friend, the great Trombonist, Jimmy Knepper, Jerry Newman, Boris Rose, and many others for making the effort to capture these moments. They weren’t doing this for monetary gain (perhaps that came later). In the case of Benedetti and Knepper they were studying the music, they transcribed the music and examples of their transcriptions still survive. They appear to have had Charlie Parker’s consent to record him, but perhaps not the club owners. As the news of Parker’s death filtered through New York City, the legend ‘Bird Lives’ appeared written on subway walls. So let’s celebrate his life by listening to Bird - live!

Happy Birthday Charlie Parker and a big thank you for the great gift you left us all.

Suggested Listening
• The Complete Royal Roost Broadcasts - Jazz Dynamics
• Charlie Parker Montreal 1953 - Uptown Records
• The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings of Charlie Parker - Mosaic Records
• Complete Live at Birdland (with Gillespie) due for re-release October 2020 - Birds Nest.

Lewis Watson

3 comments :

Russell said...

A great read, Lewis. I reckon that was dinner money well spent. Bird Lives!

Ken Drew (on F/b) said...

What a great read. Nice to get some personal background/historical insight with some useful pointers in there too.

Russell said...

Lewis mentioned that John Warren nearly heard Bird live. That's about as good as it gets. That said, is there anyone out there who reads BSH who heard Charlie Parker in concert? If you did, you must be in your mid eighties, if not older. Tell us about the occasion!

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