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Bebop Spoken There

Wendell Brunious: "Because the blues is not 1,4 and 5 or 1,4,5,2,1. You could wake up with a flat tyre or a headache this morning, that's the blues, man" - (DownBeat, Oct. 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

15878 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 885 of them this year alone and, so far, 83 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Paul Skerritt @ Vespa Italian Bar & Steakhouse, Primrose Hill, Jarrow. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 483 3355.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Sound the Trumpets @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 05: Hot Club du Nord @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00. POSTPONED!
Thu 05: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Tommy Bentz Trio + Mark Croft Duo + George Shovlin & George Lamb @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Harbour View Speakeasy's USA blues double bill + Shovlin & Lamb!
Thu 05: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 06: Alcyona Mick @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 06: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 2:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Balo @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Fri 06: Lexer/Mayes/Noble + Semay Wu + Miman @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 06: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Vault, Hexham. 7:30pm. £20.00. Book in advance. Moreno with Alan Law, Paul Grainger & John Bradford.
Fri 06: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. 'Celebrating Oscar'.
Fri 06: Nu Brass Sounds: Big Brass Bash @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: King Bees @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 07: WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Arts & Entertainment @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 10:15am. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Hot Club du Nord @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 07: Bugge & Niccols + Moore & Fairhall @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - All the Things You Are. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 07: Rie Nakajima @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3Sixty Champagne Lounge, Hadrian’s Tower, Newcastle. From 7:00pm. To book a table - 0191 933 8591.
Sat 07: Boys of Brass @ Salt Market Social, Liddell St., North Shields. From 7:00pm. £9.00. + bf.
Sat 07: Samuel Blaser Trio + Toxvaerd & Zeeberg + Muramatsu & Welch @ Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sat 07: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 08: Zoë Gilby Quintet + Ubunye @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Line-up inc. Tony Kofi. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 08: Tommy Bentz Band @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. USA blues band.

Mon 09: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 09: Cherise Adams-Burnett @ The Grove, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. .

Tue 10: Abbie Finn Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:30pm.

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Just thinkin' ...

This quote from KT Reeder is interesting, controversial and must surely provoke some further comment"The idea of teaching somebody to improvise is just bloody ridiculous. In this country jazz has been appropriated by universities. They have jazz courses, and they churn out people who have a degree in jazz, which makes me feel very nauseous, the idea that you can be trained to do jazz." - (Giant Steps by David Burke).

This is something I, as one who struggled through various  teach yourself jazz tutors as well as gleaning 'knowledge' from semi-pros, regarded this as the way to go. I mean, did Louis or Bird go to Berklee or Julliard? No, they went to the School of Hard Knocks before graduating to the University of Life.

So it's easy to sentimentalise and typecast today's young Turks as conveyor belt musicians who haven't the, shall we say, soul, the individuality that made  the greats great?

Worth pondering upon.

However, had not jazz achieved the belated 'respectability' of acceptance by the various educational establishments, which direction would future aspiring musicians have turned to? At comps it would have been Bach, Beethoven & Brahms - Bix, Bird and Brecker, who?

The media surrounded them with Beatles, Beach Boys and Beastie Boys and even Ronnie Scott's solo on Lady Madonna probably didn't put a tenor sax, instead of a guitar, on their letter to Santa.

So, the fact that colleges, worldwide, sprung up introducing jazz into the curriculum is to be praised with the end result that we now have a generation of young musicians who, technically speaking, could carve the old masters from here to breakfast time except for the fact that the new kid on the block whose solo incorporated more demi-semi-quavers in 33.5 bars than, say, Johnny Hodges did in his lifetime, will be forgotten tomorrow whereas Hodges, and those like him who used their instrument in the way a painter used his brush created something that will last as long as time itself. Lance

2 comments :

Steve Andrews said...

I'm a bit hesitant to comment on this, Lance, because I know many younger musicians (who isn't?) who have come through the "college" system who are excellent jazz improvisers. I have also heard many who think that running arpeggios at speed regardless of the chord sequence is a substitute for melody and creativity. Colleges can certainly teach musicianship, but can they teach musicality? As to whether they can teach how to improvise jazz, I believe that, unless you were lucky enough to have sprung forth from the womb a fully-formed jazz genius, like Louis, Bix, Hawk, Pres, Bird, Diz and the other acknowledged greats, this can only be learned by dedicated listening to great musicians, particularly on record, where we have the gift of being able to study and learn from their choruses again and again. And then, get out there and Play, Play, Play! Think about what you played, play some more and refine it over years until you can produce a solo that you are, if not proud of, then at least not ashamed of! And if you have never played a solo you were ashamed of, then put the horn away and take up landscape gardening!

Gordon Solomon said...

There are arguments on both sides I suppose. To me there are only two features of a really good improvised solo. Technique and Taste. I have listened many times to well schooled musicians play with tremendous technique but with absolutely no taste. Conversely there are many examples of much simpler solos beautifully constructed and performed. I suppose Coleman Hawkins' Body and Soul is a classic example.

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