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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 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

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Mar 26: Pop Jazz @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. 'Jazzified' tunes by the likes of Sylvester, Bowie, the Monkees etc., feat. Alan Law, David Gray, Richard Herdman & Jude Murphy.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Tuesday, October 06, 2020

Double album review: Dexter Gordon - The Squirrel

Dexter Gordon (tenor sax); Kenny Drew (piano); Bo Stief (bass); Art Taylor (drums)

The albums they come and then they go. Some arrive, you listen and, very occasionally, listen again on the car stereo. But there are others that you play frequently and highly recommend.

However, the moment when you feel jazz blogging is all worthwhile is that rare occasion when you are placed into the position of the art critic asked to review the Mona Lisa.

It doesn't happen often, but, today I found myself in that position twice! I'll write about the second album later, after I've tired of the first which could be never!

I've got, and almost worn out, Dexter's Blue Note albums. I never remotely imagined I could hear him play better. It's like saying that a soccer player only scored a hat-trick or a cricketer only scored a century. Well this is is a double hat-trick and a triple century combined! I love Coltrane, Rollins, Getz et al but this is something else. Even my greatest hero, Wardell Gray, had he lived would have struggled to reach this level.

A double album vinyl beautifully laid out with comprehensible notes written on the inner sleeves make this a work of art in itself and that's before the first of the four extended tracks sent me reeling the way only the very best can hit you and as it must surely have knocked out the Danish fans at Copenhagen's Jazzhuis Montmartre back in 1967.

The four tracks range from 12 mins to 20 mins with Dexter the predominate figure although Drew, Taylor and Stief also chip in - Taylor driving it along without overpowering. No one quite built on the legacy of Lester and Bird like Dexter Gordon did - this is the Holy Grail of saxophone playing.

Listening enraptured, I wondered why I couldn't have been sitting in the front row at the legendary Copenhagen club. A check with an old diary revealed I was doing a wedding gig at the Springfield Hotel in Gateshead that day. Talk about chalk and cheese although, in this case, it was Cheese Cake which Dexter allowed us to gorge for 20 minutes and 43 seconds. Never has it tasted more delicious.

The young (and the old) pretenders may wax eloquent about the newer guys but, without Dex, there wouldn't have been any newer guys. The proof is in these two 180g pieces of vinyl issued by good old Parlophone to coincide with the latest Record Store Day - October 24.

Lance

The Squirrel; Cheese Cake; You've Changed; Sonnymoon for Two.

1 comment :

Mike Farmer said...

Great Review. I've had many Dexter Gordon records over the years and have come to the conclusion that no other tenor player is in his league. I was was at the Montmartre Club in Copenhagen once sitting at the front and got the full force of his huge sound. Kenny Drew on piano NHOP bass and Alex Rial drums. What a night1

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