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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Album review: Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra - Tales from the Jacquard

Tales from the Jacquard is a love letter to the East Midlands' lace-making industries. In the nineteenth century Joseph Marie Jacquard designed the Jacquard card. Attached to a loom, it played an important part in the garment-making production process. Julian Siegel's family ran a lace-making business in Nottingham. The composer-arranger-musician-bandleader said: I have clear memories of trips to the lace factory with my Dad in the 1970's and hearing the sound of the machines - he wanted to conduct them! 

A commission by Derby Jazz resulted in Siegel writing Tales from the Jacquard, a three part suite inspired by the aforementioned lace makers . Some thirty minutes of music was recorded in March 2017, originally broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Jazz Now programmeThis new Whirlwind Recordings' release features the 'Jacquard' alongside earlier Siegel compositions originally written for small band performance rearranged for the Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra.  

On a visit to a lace making factory, Siegel came to realise that the punched cards of the Jacquard machine opened up possibilities in terms of inspiring the compositional structure of his music, informing the melody, rhythm and harmonic structures. An all-star ensemble rose to the occasion on the day of the performance in March 2017 with razor-sharp section work and a string of superlative solos.  

Siegel wrote for specific soloists and during the Jacquards' three parts we hear from Liam Noble, piano, Claus Stötter, flugelhorn (pt 1), Tori Freetone, flute, Noble, and Siegel himself playing soprano saxophone (pt 2), plus Harry Brown, trombone, Stan Sulzmann, tenor sax, Oli Hayhurst, bass, Henry Lowther, trumpet, Siegel again, this time blowing tenor, and ace London based American drummer Gene Calderazzo (pt 3). It could be said the compositional textures weave together in a sprawling, ambitious work, mirroring the factory environment which proved so inspirational to Siegel! 

The additional material, all seventy five minutes of it, ranges from Blues (Jason Yarde, soprano sax) to the closing piece, Cedar Walton's Fantasy in D, featuring first, trombonist Trevor Mires, followed by the two tenors of Siegel and Sulzmann blowing up a storm with Calderazzo having the final word. Tales from the Jacquard by the Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra is available from Friday (June 25) on Whirlwind Recordings (cat. no WR4774). Russell                       
 
Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra: Julian Siegel (tenor sax, soprano sax, bass clarinet, compositions, arrangements); Nick Smart (conductor); Tom Walsh, Percy Pursglove, Henry Lowther, Claus Stötter (trumpets); Mark Nightingale, Trevor Mires, Harry Brown (trombones); Richard Henry (bass trombone, tuba); Mike Chillingworth (alto sax); Jason Yarde (alto sax, soprano sax); Stan Sulzmann (tenor sax); Tori Freestone (tenor sax, flute); Gemma Moore (baritone sax, bass clarinet); Mike Outram (guitar); Liam Noble (piano); Oli Hayhurst (double bass); Gene Calderazzo (drums)  

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