Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Béla Fleck: “ And that's the great thing about live performances, you take people on a journey. It doesn't have to be like something else they've heard. It's not supposed to be". DownBeat, April, 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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm.
Thu 28: Richard Herdman Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Guests: Josh Bentham (alto sax); Alan Marshall (tenor sax); Neil Brodie (trumpet); Adrian Beadnell (bass); Graham Thompson (keys); Steve Hunter (drums).

Fri 29: FILM: Soul @ The Forum Cinema, Hexham. 12:30pm. Jazz-themed film animation.
Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free. POSTPONED!
Fri 29: Thundercat @ Newcastle City Hall.
Fri 29: John Logan @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 30: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 30: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Whitley Bay Library, York Road, Whitley Bay. 8:00pm.

Sun 31: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 31: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields NE30 1HJ. 3:00pm. Free. Lambert, Alan Law & Paul Grainger.
Sun 31: Sid Jacobs & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. USA/London jazz guitar duo.
Sun 31: Bellavana @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

April
Mon 01: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 02: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Dean Stockdale, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 03: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 03: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 03: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thursday, November 11, 2021

The Rachael Cohen Trio @ The Oxford Tavern, Kentish Town - Nov. 8

Rachael Cohen (alto sax); Joe Downard (double bass); Jason Brown (drums)

Hotfooting it from Ronnie Scott's (the amazing Samara Joy!) up to Kentish Town in time to catch Rachael Cohen's set, it was to be an evening of two gigs of markedly contrasting styles sharing one thing in common - musical brilliance. The Oxford Tavern has been home to jazz - broadly modern to contemporary with excursions into free territory  - for many years.

The weekly session's current custodian, guitarist Will Arnold-Forster, couldn't have been other than delighted with the turn out in the small upstairs room on Kentish Town Road. 

Alto saxophonist Rachael Cohen is an established name on the London jazz scene and this evening she was in the company of  bassist Joe Downard and drummer Jason Brown, themselves prominent figures in the capital and beyond. All three musicians have featured in lockdown live streams, not least from Ronnie Scott's, and to see (and hear) them up close in a supportive environment offered further evidence that the live jazz gig is well and truly back in business. Cohen's The Fish Underwater opened the first of two absorbing sets. In total command of her instrument, Cohen examined, explored and, quite likely, expanded upon her composition, crucially Downard and Brown were right there with the Shetland Islander, pulling, pushing and stretching the material as improvisers are wont to do. 

Betty Carter's Tell Her I Said Hello spotlighted Cohen's angular alto playing. If Ms Carter had picked up a saxophone perhaps she would have sounded something like this. Another original, with the humorous title The Hand That Feeds Has One Finger Missing, was Cohen the composer/musician distilled in one. It surely helps to work with empathetic musicians and Downard and Brown were certainly that on this Kentish Town gig. Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage and the ballad section from Sonny Rollins' Freedom Suite album kept Cohen's trio just on the inside of the outside. To conclude two superb sets, Cohen, Downard and Brown went out on Bird's Dewey Square. Russell

No comments :

Blog Archive