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Bebop Spoken There

Branford Marsalis: "As ignorance often forces us to do, you make a generalisation about a musician based on one specific record or one moment in time." - (Jazzwise June 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

15491 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 512 of them this year alone and, so far, 133 this month (May 31).

From This Moment On ...

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED! BACK ON JUNE 15.
Thu 08: Easington Colliery Brass Band @ The Lubetkin Theatre, Peterlee. 7:00pm. £10.00.
Thu 08: Faye MacCalman + Blue Dust Archive @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Dilutey Juice + Ceramic @ The Ampitheatre, Sea Road, South Shields. 7:00pm. Free. A South Tyneside Festival event.
Thu 08: Lara Jones w. Vigilance State @ Lubber Fiend, Blandford Square, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 08: Michael Littlefield @ the Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Country blues.
Thu 08: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Miners' Picnic @ Woodhorn, Ashington. Music inc. Northern Monkey Brass Band (3:00-3:50pm); New York Brass Band (4:00-4:55pm).
Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Jeremy McMurray's Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Ropner Park, Stockton TS18 4EF. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 13: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 13: Infusion Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 13: Alice Grace & Pawel Jedrzejewski @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv.).

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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