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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise 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 ...

March

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. Due to phenomenal demand, extra tickets released - gig now in the theatre. Book at: www.bishopaucklandtownhall.org.uk
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington DL1 5PN. 6:00pm. New venue, live jazz!
Sat 01: Jambone @ Sage Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (book online). A YMP! event in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall.
Sat 01: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibtion Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

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.

Thursday, October 07, 2021

Album review: Lee Morgan – The Complete Live at the Lighthouse (Blue Note)

Lee Morgan (trumpet, flugelhorn); Bennie Maupin (tenor sax, flute, bass clarinet); Harold Mabern (piano); Jymie Merritt (bass); Mickey Roker (drums) + Jack DeJohnette (drums on one tk)

The postman struggled up the drive with this box set and two tiles were shattered in the hallway as it landed. I’m glad I ordered the 8 CD version as I understand that the 12 LP sets are delivered by donkeys liberated from their usual travails of carrying overweight Americans up to castles in Crete. It is a bit of a beast, but it’s also what you would have wanted from 8 CDs of Lee Morgan with a hot band raising the roof in Hermosa Beach, California in July 1970.

This is, effectively, the third iteration of Lee Morgan, whose career had been derailed twice by drugs. By the time of the visit to The Lighthouse he was back up to full strength. Credit for this is usually given to Helen Moore/Morgan who had taken him in, fed him, retrieved his horn and his coat from the pawnbrokers and would effectively manage the rest of his career. Less than two years later she would also be the one who shot him dead. You have to get through that cloud hanging over this music to get to the gems within.

Some of this music had been released as a single album and then later as a 3 CD set but this is the first release that contains all of the music from 12 sets played across 3 days. There are, actually, only 33 tracks, (excluding introductions), 21 of which haven’t been released before, so as you can imagine they all, pretty much, get a good seeing to. In fact, the best way to think about this release is to take everything you ever liked about Lee Morgan and kick it up a notch or three in terms of the excitement level. Many of the tracks clock in over ten minutes, with the longest Absolutions, over 22 minutes. This departure from the sharp, punchy tracks such as studio classics like The Sidewinder is more about the opportunity to expand and to work ideas through; it’s about freedom from constraint rather than a lack of discipline. Everyone solos as if they have a lot to say and all the time they need in which to say it.

Morgan emphasises during the introductions that they will be playing mainly new material so The Sidewinder gets one run through whilst others (Nommo, Absolutions, The Beehive, I Remember Britt) each crop up a few times. It’s a lesson in the history of bop from its earliest shapes in the late 40s to the driving hard bop of Blakey up to the then new developments, now regarded as post-bop. The band wouldn’t stay together for long after this session, with Maupin, for example, joining Miles Davis and playing on Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, On the Corner and Big Fun.

Four of the five band members contribute compositions, with only Roker missing out, though Morgan’s contributions are two tunes from much earlier in his career. This gives the collection quite disparate voices that still cohere as a single whole. Coltrane’s influence shines through in Maupin’s playing while Mabern covers a spectrum from rapid runs to heavy percussive playing. Merritt is the anchor, solidly rooting the rest of the band. Morgan plays with great power, but stylistically, has moved on from his earlier working of rhythm and blues into jazz and, on these recordings, displays a wider range of voicings that fits in with his colleagues’ expansive compositions.

This was an unwise purchase but my buyer’s remorse dissipated more and more as I worked my way through it. Probably another one for your Christmas list. Dave Sayer

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