Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

David Hadju: "It was kind of a lightning bolt [seeing a photo of a hi-fi store that's now occupied by a phone store]. Everyone had hi-fi systems, now everyone has a phone" - (DownBeat May 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

15478 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 499 of them this year alone and, so far, 120 this month (May 27).

From This Moment On ...

May 2023

Sun 28: Bradley Creswick's Western Swingfonia @ Whitley Bay Carnival. Free. Plaza Arena stage. 12 noon.
Sun 28: MSK @ Whitley Bay Carnival. 12:15pm. Free. Marquee stage. MSK - Steve Glendinning, Katy Trigger, Martin Douglas.
Sun 28: Musicians Unlimited @ The Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Back Chat Brass @ Whitley Bay Carnival. 1:30pm. Free. Marquee stage.
Sun 28: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Tim Kliphuis Trio @ St Mary's Church, Wooler NE71 6BZ. 3:00pm. £15.00 standard; £5.00 student/unwaged; free under 18. Afternoon Cocktail, a Wooler Summer Arts' concert promotion. Kliphuis (violin); Nigel Clark (guitar); Roy Percy (double bass).
Sun 28: Back Chat Brass @ Whitley Bay Carnival. 3:00pm. Free. Plaza Arena stage.
Sun 28: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 28: King Bees @ The Delaval Arms, Old Hartley NE26 4RL. 5:00pm. Free. Chicago blues at its best!
Sun 28: Matt Anderson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Anderson (saxophones); Jamil Sheriff (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Dave Walsh (drums).

Mon 29: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 30: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 30: Big Chris Barber Band @ Whitley Bay Playhouse. 7:30pm.

Wed 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 31: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 31: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 31: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

June
Thu 01: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 01: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Donations.
Thu 01: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 01: Jake Leg Jug Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 01: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 02: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 02: Joseph Carville Trio @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 02: Claire Martin & Her Trio @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. £25.00., £20.00. Feat. Jim Mullen, Alex Garnett & Jeremy Brown.
Fri 02: Guy Davis + Michael Littlefield & Scott Taylor @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm. Blues double bill.
Fri 02: Anders Ingram @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Blind Pig Blues Club. Country blues. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

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.

Thursday, September 23, 2021

Album review: Chet Doxas – You Can’t Take It With You

Chet Doxas (sax); Ethan Iverson (piano); Thomas Morgan (bass)

This CD arrived on the day that the government announced an increase in National Insurance to pay for social care in the UK. We now have the threat of fuel price rises and the end of the Universal Credit uplift. Not only can you not take it with you, you might not have it for very long in the first place!!

I hadn’t heard of Chet Doxas or Thomas Morgan before this CD, though I knew Iverson from his playing with The Bad Plus, a self-proclaimed ‘power trio.’ This is a drummer less group that creates space and the instruments can float, unanchored, between each other. The lack of the drummer seems to make the listener lean in that much closer, though that’s partly the result of some soft playing as well. The standard of composition and playing is such that you want to catch all of what’s going on. Closer listening is rewarded.

Although this is a showcase for Doxas’ compositions he actually lays out for much of the album (his liner notes say he was practising getting out of the way) and Iverson’s piano is often the lead voice. This throws more light onto the bass as well and Morgan is always up to the task, a constant pulse, under and behind everything, on the title track, for instance, Morgan takes the lead, opening the album and there is relatively little of Doxas.

The second tune Lodestar (for Lester Young) has Iverson playing inside the piano. Sporadic fantastic sounds and increasingly heavy chords mark out a path for the sax to follow. It builds to a liberation then a Prez inspired outro that leads into Part of a Memory, a wailing lament that becomes a more uplifting dance with twinkling piano, the bass guiding the steps.

Twelve Foot Blues is the easiest track on the album to find your way into. It’s a rolling Mississippi riverboat blues with the three protagonists circling each other and giving each other the nod and a hint of who Could Ask For Anything More?

Doxas describes Last Pier as a film noir soundtrack with the piano playing the world weary Joe who cracks the case. The sax provides the relief and the imagery of the bad guy face-down in the water as dawn is breaking and the broad (can we still say that?) has been rescued.

Snapshot is a high volume, low knowledge argument with Doxas ranting through and round his sax. It’s what passes for politics on Fox News. By way of contrast, Up There in the Woods is an easy West Coast swing, a two-step in the light in tribute to guitarist Jim Hall.

The closer, View from a Bird, was inspired by Femme, oiseau, etoile by Joan Miro, rather than by Charlie Parker and its Spanish roots show through. It’s more of a Hollywood interpretation of Spain but it ends the album on an optimistic note, it’s an invitation to dance whilst you still have both the ability and the desire to.

You Can’t Take It With You is available on CD from Sept. 24 and on vinyl the week after. It can be bought HERE through Bandcamp, from Jeff ‘The Urban Spaceman’ Bezo’s site and through the usual other outlets. Dave Sayer

No comments :

Blog Archive