Total Pageviews

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

Fri 13: Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Two pianos, two pianists! SOLD OUT!
Fri 13: Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Dilutey Juice @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.00. adv..
Fri 13: Ray Stubbs R & B All-stars @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Classic blues.

Sat 14: Jeff Barnhart’s Silent Film Fest @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 14: Customs House Big Band w. Ruth Lambert @ St Paul’s Centre, St Paul’s Gardens, Spennymoor DL16 7LR. 7:00pm (6:45pm doors). Tickets £10.00. from the venue or tel: 01388 813404. A ‘BYOB’ event.
Sat 14: Emma Wilson @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00. Acoustic blues.
Sat 14: Rat Pack - Swingin’ at the Sands @ Billingham Forum. 7:30pm.

Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Panharmonia @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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: 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.

Thursday, December 24, 2020

A Peggy for my thoughts

The December issue of JazzTimes features an in depth article on Peggy Lee's iconic Album Black Coffee also pointing out that, had she still been with us, May 26 would have marked her 100th birthday - a fact that seems to have bypassed most of the jazz media, BSH included.

This apparent indifference may be due to Ms Lee, like Sinatra, Nat Cole, Lena Horne and others straddling the ever narrowing line that separates jazz singer from entertainer as if it's not possible to be both. For my money it's essential.

So, although I never saw her live, her recordings are never far from my turntable and I'd like to mention a few. Because her output was so prolific I'm sure other readers will have their own choices.

First a question? What did Peggy Lee and Lonnie Donegan have in common?*

Peggy recorded 34 sides with  Benny Goodman including, in 1942, her first big hit Why Don't You Do Right? A minor key blues recorded previously by Lil Green.

She left Goodman, married guitarist Dave Barbour, signed with Capitol and together they had another hit with  Mañana.

I got hooked on Peggy in 1952 when I first heard her recording of Lover. She took Rodgers and Hart's sedate waltz and turned it inside out. It was electric! I'd never heard anything like it before - Jeanette McDonald it wasn't! This was recorded by Decca after Capitol refused to let her commit such sacrilege probably fearing a lawsuit from the composer.

It was during her sojourn  at Decca that the aforementioned Black Coffee album was recorded. One of the greatest vocal albums ever not least for Pete Candoli's trumpet insertions, The title track is but one of 12 masterpieces.

My Old Flame, initially recorded with Goodman and again when she returned to Capitol is given its best outing on the Decca album Dream Street.               

The film Pete Kelly's Blues had Ella singing Hard Hearted Hannah but for me the highlight was Peggy singing Sugar with a Bobcats' style band.

Differences healed, Peggy returned to Capitol for the bulk of the remainder of her career which included Fever - fantastic recording that has somehow become devalued owing to every wannabee jazz singer adding it to their repertoire and failing to come within a mile of the original.

The Folk Who Live on the Hill is one of the all-time classics, first sung by Bing back in 1937. Twenty years later Peggy made it her own. When Bing sang the line Darby and Joan who used to be Jack and Jill he sounded like a "Darby" whereas as Peggy's husky, sensuous voice sounds nothing like Darby's Joan so she wisely substitutes Baby and Joe!

You Came A Long Way From St. Louis from the album with George Shearing - Beauty and the Beat - is almost a throw back to Why Don't You Do Right? The same cynical approach but this time with a more hardboiled edge. 

Mirrors saw her recording an album of songs by Leiber and Stoller for A & M records in 1975. Some Cats Know made ripples and, even aged 55, Peggy could still turn you on with the suggestive lyrics. I recall Zoë Gilby featuring the song in her set a few years back.

So there we are, my thoughts on Peggy Lee.

Lance

*Both Peggy and Lonnie had million sellers without receiving any royalties. Benny Goodman picked up the loot for Why Don't You Do Right? and Chris Barber rode the Rock Island Line all the way to the bank. In fairness though it must be said that these early hits did pave the way for their future, successful, careers.

2 comments :

Miles said...

Jack Jackson's record show on a Saturday night often featured Peggy Lee, Don't Smoke In Bed sent me to bed with dreams an adolescent shouldn't have. Miles
.

Liz said...

Like you Lance,I was a huge Peggy Lee fan. "Fever" was probably how I first came to be aware of her. However my late Dad was in awe of her. I often thought about her " Baby & Joe", and wondered about the original Darby & Joan. I just assumed the latter was British , but Peggy's was more Stateside. She was part of our young years, but seemed to have an air of mystery about her. like so many, gone but never forgotten.

Blog Archive