Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Kelly Sill: "Just because everyone is playing through the changes in the same time doesn't mean they're actually playing together" - (JazzTimes March/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

15260 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 279 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (March 29).

From This Moment On ...

April

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.

Tue 04: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 04: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Bradley Johnston (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations. Feat. John Pope, Marie Shreer, John Garner.
Thu 06: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 06: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Note earlier start time.

Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 07: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 07: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 07: Finntet + Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.
Fri 07: TBA @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Blind Pig Blues Club.

Sat 08: Me Lost Me + Ceitidh Mac + Heather Ferrier @ Bobik's, Punch Bowl, Newcastle. 7:30pm. JNE.
Sat 08: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED from last week (Sat 01).
Sat 08: Robbie Reay @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Acoustic blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 08: Anth Purdy @ Mr Tighe's, Bebside, Northumberland. 8:30pm.

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Album review: Charles Mingus - Mingus at Carnegie Hall

Charles Mingus (bass); Jon Faddis (trumpet); George Adams (tenor sax); Hamiet Bluiett (baritone sax); Don Pullen (piano); Dannie Richmond (drums) + Rahsaan Roland Kirk (tenor sax/stritch); John Handy (alto, tenor sax); Charles McPherson (alto sax).

All bets are off! - Reissue of the Year - this is it! Carnegie Hall seems to work a kind of magic on those who have practiced hard enough to pass through its portals and on to the hallowed stage. Toscanini, Goodman, Monk and Mingus made it and this 1974 double CD (or 3 x lp vinyl) is a worthy example and, indeed, in jazz terms eclipses just about anything that was ever played there before and, most likely, since!

The music abounds in wild abandon that, unlike some of the freer music I've heard recently, still maintains an approximation of form.

The soloists push the boundaries of their mentors and inspirations way beyond mere clonism but into realms even their bopfathers  (a Lance word) may have feared to tread. Faddis takes the wisdom of Dizzy to even greater heights like - how many octaves can you hit above top C?!

George Adams explodes throughout as though he was playing piccolo parts, using Grit 40 sandpaper reeds and up for a fight (you had to to be in a Mingus band). Adams rewrites saxophone playing - maybe even as much as Coltrane did.

But, for me, the wake-up call was not Mingus' ever powerful bass nor Dannie Richmond's drums but Don Pullen on piano. I knew Pullen as a fine groove-making organist but this was my first experience of him as a pianist. His solos bring sanity amidst the magnificent musical madness taking place.

Perdido brought the guests on stage for a jam that made the old JATP jams seem like elevator music. Handy, Bluiett, Kirk, McPherson Adams and Faddis took this to near enough a light year or two from the  Planet Uranus. The jamming continued, this time in the key of C. Uranus was history it was now Pluto or bust! You want free? just dig the extended coda!

I've got a shelf full of Mingus on vinyl, CD and cassette and this is no poor relation. Turn the volume way up high and you're in Carnegie Hall maybe sitting next to Leonard Feather, Barry Ulanov or Dan Morgenstern.

An interesting footnote is that, after the gig, Mingus said to Adams, "George, I want you to go home and check out Ben Webster". Lance 

Available via usual suspects but check out your high street record store first.

CD1: Introduction; Peggy's Blue Skylight; Celia; Fables of Faubus.

CD 2: Big Alice; Perdido; C Jam Blues.

1 comment :

Lewis Watson said...

Hi Lance,

I remember buying the this album on it's initial release, I bought it from Hamiltons music shop in Middlesborough,

I listened to it first in omne of the listening booths, I remember the startled expression on the faces of some of the other shoppers,

I'm surprised who haven't heard much of Don Pullen he's long been one of my favourites, you must check out the Don

Pullen/George Adams quartet, I'll think you will enjoy them, Danny Richmond on drums and Cameron Brown on Bass.

Lewis Watson

Blog Archive