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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

17346 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 630 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Sept. 11).

From This Moment On ...

September

Tue 17: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. 12:30pm. £13.00. Tel: 0191 237 3697. ‘Indian Summer Afternoon Tea’.
Tue 17: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels (guitar); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 18: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 19: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Kevin Eland, Dan Johnson, Jeremy McMurray, Ron Smith.

Fri 20: Lindsay Hannon’s Tom Waits for No Man @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 20: Rob Hall & Chick Lyall @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Leeway @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. The Old Black Cat Jazz Club. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Gaz Hughes Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 1:00-2:45pm. Free.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Jude Murphy & Alan Law @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free.
Sun 22: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Richard Herdman @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 22: Remy CB Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 8:30pm. Free. Remi, 2024 Newcastle Uni graduate, superb soul/blues voice!

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Paul Booth with the Paul Edis Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert! SOLD OUT!

Tuesday, May 03, 2022

Heidi Martin - Gifts & Sacrifices

(Press release)

Spring is here with Gifts & Sacrifices, the new album from American vocalist and composer Heidi Martin, recorded at NYC’s GSI Studio last June. Born in Washington DC, Heidi honed her craft under the tutelage of elder Grady Tate while absorbing the city’s additional jazz royalty:  Shirley Horn, Reuben Brown, and Steve Novosel at DC’s own historic venue ‘One Step Down’.

 

Moving to New York City in the late 90’s, Heidi quickly established herself on the East Coast scene. This fertile period allowed her to work with an eclectic and virtuosic role call: Paul Bollenback, George Colligan, Dana Murray, Gregoire Maret, Ameen Saleem, Federico Gonzales Pena, Michael Bowie, Kris Funn, George Burton, Tarus Mateen, Russell Gunn, Dwayne Burno, and Gene and Kim Lake. She played Birdland, the Knitting Factory, CBGBs when she wasn’t getting back to DC for Bohemian Caverns, Blues Alley, and the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage.

 

Heidi cultivated her expertise as a composer and band-leader, eventually releasing her debut album ‘Hide’. All About Jazz only had this to say about it: “a biopic of the 21st Century American South: the sticky sensuality and dusty prejudice that endures, never changing. Musically, Hide is the same, but sparingly so -- Muscle Shoals and Memphis distilled to the pure essence … “a vehicle for lyrics to manifest in the aural sea of forgiveness”. Co-Produced with Dana Murray, HIDE was also a vehicle for her to assemble a unique cast of musicians and friends including Eric Revis, Gregoire Maret, James Hurt, Kahlil Kwame Bell, Derek and Vincent Gardner, Sherman Irby, and Jamal Brown.

 

The success of HIDE meant national and international performances at Winter JazzFest, DC Jazz Festival, Atlanta’s Black Arts Fest, Pori Jazz Festival (Finland), The Kenzi Sky Bar, and Cadet Rouge (Casablanca, Morocco), among others. Heidi has also shared the stage as a featured vocalist with luminaries such as Nicholas Payton, Tim Warfield, George Burton, and Russell Gunn, as guest artist on recordings with Russell Gunn, Dana Murray, Steve Williams, Harold Little and Pause, Play, Record, as well as significant collaborations in co-writing and co- production with producer and keyboard innovator Raymond Angry, producer Russell Gunn, vocalist-composer Alison Crockett, Moroccan guitarist Hamza Badil, and producer and drummer Dana Murray.

 

Fast forward to this new gem, Gifts & Sacrifices.  Speaking about her new album, Heidi says, “Gifts & Sacrifices asks questions about the under examined social issues in humanity and within ourselves, and with our lovers. I share my best poetic guess to why things have unraveled in the ways I
perceive they have…” In fact, Heidi’s lyrics are more than a guess; they have rung true way before half of America decided to get woke for a few innings.

 

Heidi conjures “message” before her singing, form, phrasing, tonal and harmonic intuition.  Her voice and compositions instigate and settle … no categories or comparisons please.  Jazz and creative music, singing and song writing – all of it is anchored by the continuity and good choices she fosters with her collaborators.

 

The album is an enthralling and heart-warming listen, destined to be one of this year’s stand out releases in an era of post-pandemic optimism.


Available now from usual suspects.

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