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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.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Book: Michael Connelly - Void Moon.

Although not part of the Harry Bosch series of novels, Void Moon still has a jazz feel to it. It's a casino heist caper set in Las Vegas that certainly has the edge on the various reincarnations of Ocean's Eleven although, given the setting, Sinatra is often mentioned and the only jazz reference is somebody wearing a hat and trying to look like Art Pepper. When a guy was being shot and buried in the desert, I did think about Wardell Gray.

But Connelly's jazz isn't in the name-dropping, it's in the writing. You sense it in the dialogue, the structured plotting - as complex as a Gil Evans orchestration - the characters as individual as the various Ellington soloists.

Chandler, Hammett, Thompson, Woolrich, Spillane all walked down the mean streets without indication that they knew a yardbird from a game bird although they did meet up with a few of the latter.

The point I'm coming to, apart from mentioning that this is one helluva book is that, like it or not, jazz is the supreme American artform even if not every American realises it. As such, although European, Latin, Asian and African musicians have produced many outstanding jazz moments, at the root, they are dialects.

Admittedly, with globalisation, the gaps are becoming closer but the spoken language is the big giveaway. Talk to northeast American expatriate trumpet player Dave Weisser for the first time and be given the option of deciding if he was (a) teacher (b) doctor or (c) jazz musician you'd opt for (c). With, say, someone who'd just been awarded an Arts Council Grant (or similar) you may not have been so sure. The gist of this is that the American drawl, whether northern or southern, suggests music be it jazz, country, rock or blues. Likewise English, German, French, Italian etc. their musical identities are defined by symphonies and operas and their actual manner of speech tends to go along with it although, in fairness, they all have indigenous jazz musicians of their own capable of making it on the international stage.

The gist of all this is that Michael Connelly writes like a jazz musician plays - full of surprises - Lance

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