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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

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).

Sun 02: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny. 12:45pm.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.

Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Ten 10" Albums I still play (occasionally). 2: Vic Dickenson Septet Vol. 1

Listening today, nearly 70 years on, it initially, made me wonder what all the fuss was about. Well, I think it was possibly because it was one of the first albums where Stanley Dance came up with the label mainstream as opposed to swing. It may not seem important now but, back then, swing meant big band flag-wavers whereas mainstream drew attention to those musicians caught in between the traditionalists, the big bands and the boppers.

Most of the musicians here had dipped their toes into some, if not all, of the waters.

Braff went on to play with Goodman, Dickenson was ex-Basie, the self-knighted Thompson took his own Basie-take into bopland and, whilst Edmund Hall had no affinity to bop - few clarinetists had - he knew his place and, in that place he reigned supreme. Page, the rock behind Basie's early discs is equally solid here. I don't know too much about guitarist Steve Jordan or drummer Les Erskine but they do the business with the end result being a session that proved that genres only exist as an example of the futility of genres. I'm not going to quote Duke's much used phrase that there are only two kinds of music - you know the rest - but instead to say that there is a lot of music that is worth listening to in between the good and the bad.

Braff is the most interesting, some might say the most obnoxious, of the horns but, irrespective of his, I'm told, abrasive personality he was the most identifiable trumpet player to emerge back in the early 1950s. Nobody sounded like him - and he knew it! 

Dickenson likewise. That growl sound he got told you who was blowing trombone and there was no grounds for error unless you wondered if Kid Ory had taken some lessons from Trummy Young.

Two tracks: Jeepers Creepers and Russian Lullaby. As I said earlier, my first reaction, upon listening again, was, is this what I've built a shrine to for all these years? But, as the music enveloped me, I knew - this was the truth as I heard it back then - maybe it still is ... Lance.

Ruby Braff  (cornet); Vic Dickenson (trombone); Edmund Hall (clarinet)* Sir Charles  Thompson (piano); Steve Jordan (guitar); Walter Page (bass); Les Erskine (drums).

* Inexplicably Hall's name is missing from the front cover!

1 comment :

Miles said...

I have a double CD which has Volumes 1,2,3,4 of the septet, Vols. 3 & 4 substitutes Shad Collins on trumpet and Jo Jones on drums. It is always worth a listen as it is an object lesson on how it should be done.
Miles.

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