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Bebop Spoken There

Quincy Jones: ''What's great about coming from a little town is that you're a big fish in a little pond and it gives you the confidence when you get to New York to be able to really compete''. (Jazzwise, December 2024/January 2025).

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!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Josh Weir: I love the writing on bebop spoken here... I think the work you are doing is amazing.

Postage

17562 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 836 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Nov. 22).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sun 01: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:15pm (12 noon doors). £7.50. Note earlier start.
Sun 01: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 01: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Laurels, Whitley Road, Whitley Bay. 4:00pm. £10.00. SOLD OUT!
Sun 01: Martin Fletcher Band @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 01: Mark Williams Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Album launch gig.
Sun 01: Christmas After Hours @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society event. Six piece band.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 02: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137.1:00pm. Free.

Tue 03: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Dean Stockdale, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.
Tue 03: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 04: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Concert. Free. .
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 04: Kat Eaton @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. 8:15pm. Soulful vocals, excellent band.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘George - named musicians, vocalists & composers (Chisholm, Duke, Lewis, Shearing, Benson, Melly, Gershwin et al)’.
Thu 05: Jools Holland’s R & B Orchestra @ Newcastle City Hall. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. Free.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. Guest band special with the Middlesbrough Jazz and Blues Orchestra 8pm. Free.

Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Sue Ferris Quintet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 07: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Hot Club du Nord @ St. Cuthbert’s Church, Shadforth DH6 1LB. Tel: 01429 823400. 7:30pm. £15.00. (inc. refreshments).
Sat 07: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 07: Bellavana @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 7:45-9:45pm. Free.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Thursday, June 17, 2021

Ten trumpet players who worked with Charlie Parker (well eleven actually)

Dizzy Gillespie was one of the founding fathers of bebop, in at its inception at Minton’s with others such as Kenny Clarke, Monk, Charlie Christian and Bud Powell. He was the doyen of all the ‘modern’ trumpet players at the time. Blessed with great technique, ideas, humour. showmanship, business acumen and ebullience, he was a member of the Parker Quintet in 1945/46 and appeared in many “one-off” gigs with Bird in the years that followed.

Howard McGhee, an accomplished trumpeter and something of a transitional figure from ‘swing’ to ‘bop’. In Bird’s group on the disastrous Lover Man session in the summer of ’46, he resumed his position on Charlie’s release from Camarillo Hospital in the spring of ’47. ‘Maggie’ had a brilliant technique, a bright tone, fast fingering with much use of the upper register notes. His career was interrupted by ‘personal problems’ and he was on and off the scene for many years in the ‘50s, ‘60s and70s.

Miles Davis was a teenager when he joined Bird’s group first in ’46 then later from late ’47 to December ’48 and his playing was much influenced by Gillespie. However he was a young man ‘searching for his own voice’ within the maelstrom of bebop, and in his own words “used to quit every night at Bird’s side”.

Subsequently he became a huge star in his own right - constantly evolving his playing throughout a wonderful career.

Kenny Dorham took Miles’ place in December ’48 leaving at the end of spring ’49 following Bird’s successful appearance at the Paris Jazz Festival and short tour of France. Again influenced earlier by Gillespie, Kenny developed into a fine musician with a warm, burnished tone, who moved first into ’hard bop’ then ‘modal’ styles of playing.

Fats Navarro, the virtuoso of the trumpet, never actually worked regularly for Bird in the quintet although he appeared on various gigs from time to time. Blessed with a fluent, imaginative style, he could ascend and descend effortlessly in and out of the ‘stratosphere’ of the instrument’s top range. My opinion is that Charlie thought Navarro was ‘too good’ to be in his band because he didn’t want to be outplayed on the stand by anybody and Fats was more than capable of that…

Colourful character Red Rodney took over Bird’s trumpet chair from late ’49 to roughly spring ’51. He had a bright, brash tone and a fluent style to match his personality and is featured on some of the ‘live’ recordings of the period. His subsequent career was marked by absences from the scene due to incarceration. However, he always bounced back ready to move on. For a while he played in a Los Angeles casino band and later acted as ‘consultant’ to Clint Eastwood’s film Bird as well as doing some teaching.

Rolf Ericson joined Bird’s combo for the tour of Sweden in 1950. An accomplished player, he knew all the repertoire and could handle himself with assured solos and group work in the bop style. He had a long and successful career in jazz working steadily with many of the great names including Ellington. He ran his own big band for a while as well as playing as a freelance musician in radio, tv and film work

“Little” Benny Harris worked for Charlie on and off from spring ’51 to summer ’53. As a trumpet player, he was capable enough but prone to erratic and slipshod playing at times. Parker liked him though because ha had composed several of the bebop anthems notably Ornithology, Wahoo, Crazyology  and Reets and I.

Chet Baker was a member of Bird’s group on at least two occasions. Firstly in June ’52 at the Trade Winds Club in Inglewood, California then as a participant in “The West Coast in Jazz” package on tour in late ’53. Charlie was impressed by what he heard and foresaw Baker’s later great success. Despite ‘personal problems’ Chet was very popular in the jazz world and worked regularly as a sideman and leader of his own group in the U S and around the world.

Herb Pomeroy joined Bird’s group on two occasions when he worked at the “Hi-Hat” Club in Boston in June and September ’53. A fine musician, he played in and led many big bands of the era as well as teaching at the Lenox School of Jazz and Berklee College of Music. His view was that jazz should be listened to ‘live’ rather than on disc.

Herbie Williams briefly joined the quintet in January ’54 in Boston. Charlie Parker was not in good shape at that time with personal issues in his life and contract disputes arising from his musical work. Nevertheless, Herbie was comfortable in this environment and played with confidence.

Footnote: It is known also that trumpeters Clifford Brown, Joe Gordon and Ira Sullivan played briefly in Charlie’s groups circa 1954. Dave Brownlow.        

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