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Bebop Spoken There

Marcella Puppini (in concert with the Puppini Sisters at Sunderland Fire Station, November 27, 2024): ''We've never played there, but we've looked it up, and it looks amazing.''. (The Northern Echo, November 21, 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

17562 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 836 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Nov. 22).

From This Moment On ...

November

Sat 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay. 11:00-1:00pm. £6.00. at the door, £4.00. advance. Tel: 0191 691 7090. A Spanish City ‘Xmas Market’ event in the Champagne Bar.
Sat 23: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Skinnergate, Darlington. 11:00am-12:30pm. Free (donations, fill up the bucket!) CANCELLED!
Sat 23: Washboard Resonators @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Sat 23: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm.

Sun 24: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay. 11:00-1:00pm. £6.00. at the door, £4.00. advance. Tel: 0191 691 7090. A Spanish City ‘Xmas Market’ event in the Champagne Bar.
Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Skerritt (solo) performing with backing tapes.
Sun 24: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 24: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Washboard Resonators @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. £8.00.
Sun 24: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: Groovetrain @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. £15.00. + bf. 5:15pm (4:00pm doors). SOLD OUT!
Sun 24: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 24: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Globe. 8:00pm.
Sun 24: Lighthouse Trio @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 25: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 26: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £12.00.; £10.00. advance.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 27: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Puppini Sisters @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Paul Skerritt @ Ashington High Street. 5:45pm. Xmas lights switch-on.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Superb blues singer!
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Richie Emmerson (tenor sax); Dan Johnson (alto sax); Graham Thompson (keys); Adrian Beadnell (bass)

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Jamie Cullum @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 29: Jive Aces @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Fri 29: Living in Shadows (Zoë Gilby Quintet) + OUTRI @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £10.00. + bf. Tickets: www.wegottickets.com. Zoe & Andy + Ian Paterson’s OUTRI solo bass project.
Fri 29: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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, April 03, 2021

Album review: Clare Foster - Kumbhaka*

I initially viewed this album with mixed feelings. A great selection of standards plus a few originals but, all given a Latin treatment. My mind boggled! Singin' in the Rain as a bossa? I Get Along Without You Very Well as a bolero? I Only Have Eyes For You as a rumba/salsa and I Can't Help Singing - first heard as a semi-operatic workout for Deanna Durbin in the film of the same name - as a chacarera? I ask you!

However, there were two factors I'd left out of the equation, Clare Foster's vocal technique and the arrangements by Shanti Jayasinha and Ms. Foster herself. This turned what could have been just another gimmick that failed into an exciting reinvention of some well-loved tunes.

Admittedly some worked better than others but there were no train-crashes and, in actual fact, some of the numbers that didn't click the first time round came back and hit me like a Tyson Fury right cross when I listened again! It's an album that grows on you with repeated hearings.

Clare Foster has a voice that slots nicely above the Latin rhythms and riffing horns pulsating beneath her. On the fast ones her deft handling of the words threatens to outrun the musicians! On the slows, the emotion is controlled without loss of feeling and her originals are just that.

Jayasinha blows trumpet and has a rather gorgeous cello solo on one of the slower numbers, Mick Foster is also heard to advantage on his various horns as is the Fender Rhodesian Crawford. Sue Davis gives Clare a vocal break on track 11 with a song attractively rendered in Portuguese.

Kumbhaka - The Space Between Each Breath.

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. 

In that space is our power to choose our response. 

In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

Viktor E. Frankl.


Listen to No Moon at All with some nice bass clarinet enhancing the vocal.

Lance


Try/buy Bandcamp.






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