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Bebop Spoken There

David Hadju: "It was kind of a lightning bolt [seeing a photo of a hi-fi store that's now occupied by a phone store]. Everyone had hi-fi systems, now everyone has a phone" - (DownBeat May 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

15478 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 499 of them this year alone and, so far, 120 this month (May 27).

From This Moment On ...

May 2023

Sun 28: Bradley Creswick's Western Swingfonia @ Whitley Bay Carnival. Free. Plaza Arena stage. 12 noon.
Sun 28: MSK @ Whitley Bay Carnival. 12:15pm. Free. Marquee stage. MSK - Steve Glendinning, Katy Trigger, Martin Douglas.
Sun 28: Musicians Unlimited @ The Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Back Chat Brass @ Whitley Bay Carnival. 1:30pm. Free. Marquee stage.
Sun 28: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Tim Kliphuis Trio @ St Mary's Church, Wooler NE71 6BZ. 3:00pm. £15.00 standard; £5.00 student/unwaged; free under 18. Afternoon Cocktail, a Wooler Summer Arts' concert promotion. Kliphuis (violin); Nigel Clark (guitar); Roy Percy (double bass).
Sun 28: Back Chat Brass @ Whitley Bay Carnival. 3:00pm. Free. Plaza Arena stage.
Sun 28: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 28: King Bees @ The Delaval Arms, Old Hartley NE26 4RL. 5:00pm. Free. Chicago blues at its best!
Sun 28: Matt Anderson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Anderson (saxophones); Jamil Sheriff (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Dave Walsh (drums).

Mon 29: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 30: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 30: Big Chris Barber Band @ Whitley Bay Playhouse. 7:30pm.

Wed 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 31: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 31: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 31: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

June
Thu 01: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 01: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations.
Thu 01: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 01: Jake Leg Jug Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 01: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 02: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: Joseph Carville Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 02: Claire Martin & Her Trio @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. £25.00., £20.00. Feat. Jim Mullen, Alex Garnett & Jeremy Brown.
Fri 02: Guy Davis + Michael Littlefield & Scott Taylor @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm. Blues double bill.
Fri 02: Anders Ingram @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. Country blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sat 03: Newcastle Record Fair @ Northumbria University, Newcastle NE8 8SB. 10:00am-3:00pm. Admission: £2.00.
Sat 03: Pedigree Jazz Band @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 03: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Sue Ferris. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 03: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 03: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Ten albums by bass players. Part four.

8. Esperanza Spalding – Radio Music Society (2012)

By the time that this album, Spalding's fourth, came out she was really starting to make a name for herself. This one mixes several black music genres and she was probably reported to the Jazz Police on the back of it. In defence of the album you only have to look at the cast list which includes Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano, Terry Lynn Carrington, Gretchen Parlato, Leo Genovese and Lionel Loueke amongst others. Indeed I saw her sat on a stool (her not me, she’s quite short for an acoustic bass player) in a group with DeJohnette, Lovano and Genovese at one of the Sage Gateshead jazz festivals. Radio Music Society is music from that place where soul meets jazz, reminiscent of Stevie Wonder with Spalding’s vocals and popping bass.

9. ACV - Fail in Wood (2009)

It was a toss-up between this album and the later, psychedelically covered, Busk as to which ACV album I would nominate for this exercise. AC is, of course, local lad and ‘hardest working man in showbiz’ nominee Andy Champion and this is a fine album on the late and very lamented Jazzaction label which carried the work of much local north east talent in its heyday. The album is full of knotty twisty rhythms and the bassist and drummer, Adrian Tilbrook, are joined at the hip throughout. Highlights include the dancing, skipping bass solo on Waking the Sleeper, the swaggering title track and the centrepiece of the album, the elegant Black Embrace (Knight Moves). The other members of the quintet, Graeme Wilson on saxes, Mark Williams (guitar) and Paul Edis (keys) are all stars in the local jazz firmament and are consistently inventive throughout.

10. John Pope Quintet - Mixed With Glass (2021)

This is the third album released this year on the New Jazz and Improvised Music Label and is another album with the bass high in the mix so that you are aware of what the leader is doing at all times. It features Faye MacCalman from Archipelago on tenor alongside Jamie Stockbridge on alto and Graham Hardy on trumpet. Johnny Hunter plays the drums. This is a fat, full, in your face sound using a range of rhythms such as the high stepping New Orleans funk of the opener Plato and the Mingus meets Ornette of  Misha, A Miner. There are a number of free excursions, such as on Ing and the fact that I’m never entirely sure what’s going on doesn’t diminish the joy in it. The title track sounds like a second cousin of Once I Had a Secret Love but features a soaring alto/bass duet which isn’t in the Doris Day version. 

A cloth-eared reviewer only gave it 3 stars in April’s Jazzwise. It’s my favourite album of the year so far. A monstrous album. Dave Sayer.

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