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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 2024).

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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Training @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 2:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘A workshop for musical improvisers’. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Wylam Village Institute, Church Road, Wylam NE41 8AP. Doors 7:00pm. Tickets £15.00. + £1.50. bf, available from: www.gigantic.com.
Sat 05: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Bright Street Big Band @ Washington Arts Centre. From 7:00pm. £12.00. Bright Street Big Band on stage at 7:30pm, preceded at 7:00pm by a swing dance taster session.
Sat 05: J.A.M. String Collective + Tara Cunningham + The Flame @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Sat 05: Heavy Drunk @ Anarchy Brewery, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.00. + £1.50. bf. ‘Mississippi Delta Blues Experience’ feat. Heavy Drunk, Watermelon Slim & Leonardo Giuliani.
Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Night @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. Nicols, Dalling ao. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 05: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Swarland Village Hall NE65 9JG. 8:00pm. £12.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm (12:30pm doors). £7.50.
Sun 06: Luis Verde Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 06: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: Catriona Bourne Quartet + Heather Ferrier + Emma Johson’s Gravy Boat @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & The Globe.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30-8:30pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Fri 11: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: The Jazz Quartet + Stratosphonic @ Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £15.00. A Rotary Club of Hexham event. The Jazz Quartet (Jude Murphy & co), Stratosphonic (blues/rock).
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Album review: Michael Feinberg – Hard Times

Michael Feinberg (bass, electric bass); Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts (drums); Orrin Evans (piano); Godwin Louis (alto sax); Billy Buss (trumpet); Gabriel Globus-Hoenich (percussion); Noah Preminger (tenor sax); Randy Brecker (trumpet on Monkeys Never Cramp); Leo Genovese (keyboards - piano on Three Flowers).

The cover of the album carries the statement of intent “When the going got tough, the tough got swinging” and shows the band as a gang of wild-west tough guys, Feinberg, chewing on a small cigar, to the fore. This leads to the inevitable question ‘Just how tough is this music?’ and the answer is like an over-boiled curate’s egg, ‘Tough in places’. Indeed, on first hearing this album sounds like a very disparate collection but it coheres into a something more unified with further listens. It shows its roots in the cover versions but there’s energy in those tracks and the originals keep those levels up. It’s very much, a grower.

The listener is lured into a false sense of comfort by the opening Introduction, a gentle piano trio plus trumpet piece.

There’s none of that comfort on the blast through Miles Davis’ Nardis, with bassist and drummer both putting in a double shift, and Buss’ trumpet, unassuming on the first track now tearing holes in the sky. That energy continues into The Husafell Stone, which removes any doubt that this is a bass player’s album. The Husafell Stone is, incidentally, the liner notes tell us, a legendary 409lb stone from Iceland, the lifting of which is a feat of strength, akin to King Arthur pulling the sword from the stone.

Pianist Orrin Evans provides an outstanding extended introduction to McCoy Tyner’s Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit. Evans is less percussive than Tyner in his playing but any shortfall is made up by Globus-Hoenich’s congas and, again pushing things along, Feinberg’s bass.

Another Tyner composition, Three Flowers follows. A complex, knotty duo between Leo Genovese on piano and Feinberg. Genovese has that percussive left hand married to a series of runs and trills around which the bass notes dance for most of the track.

Janky in the Middle is a piece of butt-swinging New Orleans funk with Bass and Louis taking the lead solos over short, punchy riffs from Feinberg.

On Every Damn Day a bold, compelling, full toned front line runs over a rolling, soloing Watts, showing the propulsive energy that you bring him to a session to provide.

Lauren’s Song is dedicated to Feinberg’s wife, whom, one can assume from the tune is lovely and elegant, though probably not as played largely on electric bass and piano to give it a sound different to anything else on the album. Then, with Monkeys Never Cramp, it’s back to some New Orleans swing that starts off like a street marching band after the coffin has been buried. (My knowledge here is based almost entirely on the opening scenes of Live and Let Die).

After a brief organ flutter from Genovese on Outro the album goes out swinging (there’s that word again) with the title track, a David ‘Fathead’ Newman composition. The tune sings, mainly through Billy Buss’ trumpet of better times ahead. It’s an uplifting tone to end on and you go away from the album feeling a little better about the world. If an album can give you that, you know it’s good ‘un.

The album is already out and is available at the usual online outlets and at Fresh Sounds New Talent  

There’s lots more info about Michael Feinberg on his website mfbass.com - Dave Sayer 

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