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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Friday, December 18, 2020

Playback session @ Smitty's - John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman

Jalen N'Gonda (vocals); Alec Harper (tenor sax); Deschanel Gordon (piano); Ferg Ireland (bass); Will Cleasby (drums).

(Screenshot courtesy of Ken Drew)

John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman - one of the great jazz vocal albums of all time. File it alongside your Sinatra's, Tormé's, Ella's and any other singer you care to name, it's up there with them and not as an also ran. No, that album is the tops.

This, as is the case with all Playback sessions, puts the reviewer and the listener in a predicament. How do you judge it? How do you compare?

The answer is that you don't. Instead, you look for the players to offer an alternative that is close enough to the original without being a pastiche which is how the guys worked it tonight.

N'Gonda has an amazing range capable of reaching up into the falsetto-sphere which I'd heard him exploit at previous gigs causing me to fear for his take on Johnny Hartman.

I needn't have worried, he was perfect. Close enough to get the feeling yet artistically distanced enough to be his own man.

The playlist followed the order of the album, opening with Irving Berlin's They Say it's Wonderful. This is my favourite Berlin song on the strength of just one word - and

They say that falling in love is grand, and... A lesser songwriter would have begun the next line with and but not old Irving he knew how to build the tension by hanging on to that seemingly inconsequential conjunction.

Dedicated to You followed by My One and Only Love and Lush Life kept the mood of the album intact. To give Jalen a chance to oil his vocal chords the band went to town on Coltrane's version of Body and Soul. Harper laying down the gauntlet for all tenor contenders. Good to hear Deschanel on piano. Since winning the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year he's now making his mark in the Jazz Premier League in which Smitty's, let's be honest, is doing way better than Arsenal in that other Premier League!

Jalen bounced back for another classic You Are Too Beautiful and finished up with Autumn Serenade.

Superb, and not forgetting Ferg and tonight's Will - both solid in support.

Lance

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