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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 ...

June

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.

Sun 04: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 04: Central Bar Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. £5.00. The Central Bar Quintet plays Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. Featuring Lewis Watson.
Sun 04: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 04: Struggle Buggy + Michael Littlefield @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues.
Sun 04: Swinging at the Cotton Club: Harry Strutters' Hot Rhythm Orchestra @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.
Sun 04: Richard Jones Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 04: Jam No. 18 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 05: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

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.
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.

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Album review: Alex Western-King - Sideslip

Alex Western King (tenor sax); James Copus (trumpet); Sam Leak (piano); Jonny Wickham (bass); Jay Davis (drums).

This is an album of two personalities. One is a bop balladeer from the ‘50s and the other is much more modern and challenging giving a suggestion of where Western-King might go on his next album.

The first two tracks exemplify this dichotomy; Make Way is relaxed with laid back piano and sax solos whilst Disorder Reordered does what it says on the tin. The latter has a disjointed, angular opening from bass and drums with Leak providing ‘Monk-ish’ interjections from somewhere behind them. The sax doesn’t come in until near the end as Western-King squalls over heavy riffing. This is lively stuff.

Dark Space starts as more Sunday morning music, though it is redeemed by a sax solo that builds towards plaintive wailings at the end that draws the listener in. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Inner Eye has a lovely ‘Bill Evans-y’ piano solo which leads into a duet with the bass. At the end of that passage I expected to hear polite night club applause and was almost surprised it wasn’t there, the tune is that well-mannered.

The title track opens like a hard bop reading of Well You Never and is built off Wickham’s rolling and tumbling, stabbing drums. Whilst he only solos, briefly, towards the end of the track his is the dominant force throughout. Copus adds some energy and attack on trumpet and provides a foil for Western-King, the two of them provide the highlights of the albums solos, sounding like a modernised Blakey front line.

The closer, The Long Road could have come from the soundtrack of a ‘50s noir thriller, especially one that featured a night-time car chase through twisting, mountainous country roads or a chase through dark alleys with the bad guy, the hero and a percussive pianist in hot pursuit of each other. Western-King lets himself go on a disrupted, fractured solo, surfing on the nose of a precarious rhythm section wave that feels like it could all come tumbling down at any second if it weren’t for the listener willing him on. Both Jay Davis on the drums Alex W-K, himself, are on top of their game, revelling in the space left as the others drop out.

Listeners hearing this album without having the sleeve notes to hand may suspect that it was recorded on two separate occasions with two sets of backing musicians which is not the case. So, there you have it; Alex Western-Kings ballad album and his progressive jazz album on one disc. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes next.

Mention should be made of the cover which shows Western-King in various poses in a concrete underpass wearing his dad’s old parka and looking as cheerful as a UK Eurovision entrant after all the points have been awarded. Ubuntu haven’t really provided the best covers for many of their albums but this one is poor, even by their standards.

Sideslip is released on June 25 and will be available through the usual outlets.

Alex’s website can be found HERE. Dave Sayer

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