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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

Tue 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 06: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Stu Collingwood (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Sid White (drums).

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Miners' Picnic @ Woodhorn, Ashington. Music inc. Northern Monkey Brass Band (3:00-3:50pm); New York Brass Band (4:00-4:55pm).
Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Jeremy McMurray's Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Ropner Park, Stockton TS18 4EF. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Ten albums by bass players - Part two

3. Charles Mingus – The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963)

One of the great Impulse modern jazz albums. If you don’t have this in your collection you should go and stand in the corner of the room until you feel better. Despite not containing any of Mingus’ best known tunes this is a tremendously strong suite of compositions that stands up against anything else recorded before or since, the opening track alone includes enough themes and variations to fill the career of a lesser composer. This album throws up the question whether Mingus is a greater composer than he is a bass player. Difficult to answer when, at times a huge, wide, interactive frenzy is built on the support provided by Mingus’ bass. He gives us soul, wailing plantation blues, weeping gospel, urban torch song, a folk waltz, frantic Mexicali strumming and Gershwinesque grandeur and it all hangs together. It would be a breath taking ballet.

4. Jaco Pastorius – Truth Liberty & Soul (1982, released 2017)

The Hendrix of the bass was a perfect fit for Weather Report’s ‘We never solo but we always solo’ ethos. I suspect that many bass players at the time heard Jaco with Weather Report and went off to train as accountants. This album was released in 2017 and I chose it as it’s a great showcase for his bass playing. Even when the band is at a roaring full throttle the bass is always prominent and always exciting and the playing of Peter Erskine on drums and Don Alias on percussion creates a rampaging three-headed rhythm beast. There is so much life and joy in this album, it’s almost overwhelming. Played at the right volume, it’s a great way to meet the neighbours.

An excellent 96 page booklet is included with the CD though ‘Jaco’ by Bill Milkowski is the essential reading if you want to get fully depressed about what was lost with his death in 1987.

5. Marc Johnson – Bass Desires (1986)

I was tempted to discuss Swept Away, Johnson’s more recent, and equally excellent, album with his wife Eliane Elias but went for this one as I like the work by both of the two featured guitarists, John Scofield and Bill Frisell. The guitar synthesizer that Frisell plays places it firmly in the 1980s, as do the mullets on the band photo on the inside cover. Johnson had been Bill Evans’ bassist towards the end of his career before forming this Bass Desires Band. Scofield provides curling, oblique, angular guitar in his trademark fashion, Erskine is constant in support, his drums bubbling under on each tune and Frisell’s guitar synthesizer adds washes of colour without muting the effect of what’s going on. Highlights include the Hollywood Chinese dance of Samurai Hee-Haw, Coltrane’s Resolution and the title track. Dave Sayer

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