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Bebop Spoken There

Charles McPherson: “Jazz is best heard in intimate places”. (DownBeat, 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

16611 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 1504 of them this year alone and, so far, 50 this month (July 23).

From This Moment On ...

July

Sat 27: BBC Proms: BBC Introducing stage @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 12 noon. Free. Line-up inc. Nu Groove (2:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (2:50pm); Dilutey Juice (3:50pm); SwanNek (5:00pm); Rivkala (6:00pm).
Sat 27: Nomade Swing Trio @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sat 27: Mississippi Dreamboats @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sat 27: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Cafédral, Owengate, Durham. 9:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.
Sat 27: Theon Cross + Knats @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 10:00pm. £22.00. BBC Proms: BBC Introducing Stage (Sage Two). A late night gig.

Sun 28: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm.
Sun 28: Miss Jean & the Ragtime Rewind Swing Band @ Fonteyn Ballroom, Dunelm House (Durham Students’ Union), Durham. 2:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.
Sun 28: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Nomade Swing Trio @ Red Lion, Alnmouth. 4:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 28: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 28: Milne Glendinning Band @ Cafédral, Owengate, Durham. 9:00pm. £9.00. & £6.00. A Durham Fringe Festival event.

Mon 29: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 30: ???

Wed 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 31: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 31: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

August

Thu 01: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:30pm. £4.00.
Thu 01: Funky Drummer @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 01: Elsadie & the Bobcats @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 02: Mainly Two @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free (donations). SOLD OUT! Fri 02: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 02: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 02: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. POSTPONED!

Monday, August 15, 2022

Album review: Brian Landrus - Red List

Brian Landrus (baritone sax, bass clarinet,  flutes); Corey King (vocals); Geoffrey Keezer (piano, keys); Jaleel Shaw (alto sax); John Hadfield (percussion); Lonnie Plaxico (bass); Nir Felder (guitar); Ron Blake tenor sax); Rudy Royston (drums); Ryan Keberle (trombone); Steve Roach (trumpet,  flugelhorn)

Brain Landrus is not just concerned about the Earth’s declining ecological diversity, he is absolutely furious and there are parts of this album that assail the ears in a way that attempts to convey the full force of his fury and the accompanying desperation. On this album he has focused on thirteen of the most endangered animals on the Red List, the International Union for Conservation of Nature list that identifies the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species. Jasper Hoiby covered similar ecological themes on his 2020 album Planet B and we can go back to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On in 1971 for the high profile release that included the much covered recently Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology).

But what’s the point? To paraphrase Frank Zappa (I think) “Isn’t writing music about endangered species like dancing about football?” (And writing reviews of it even more so?). Or is this the first of many, timely, albums as more and more artists become engaged with the most important issue of the day? Landrus’ hope with this album is that “Red List will help to facilitate critical yet uncomfortable conversations about changing our global habit of destroying nature for our own gain.”

On the album Landrus addresses these themes in two ways. He writes about the diminishing natural environments and he intersperses these with specific pen portraits of the animals at risk. He draws on nature for some of his music. He is quoted in DownBeat (August 2022, a comment that Lance put up on BSH) that "I kept listening to these different calls from different animals, same species, and they were all using major thirds." I could have expected an album full of mournful laments but much of it celebrates the diversity of the disappearing habitats and the animals themselves as if to strengthen the cry of ‘Look what we’re losing!’

To the music itself. It’s a mix of bold widescreen soul/jazz with occasional dips into other styles, such as reggae, played by a core septet with guests. The opening track Canopy of Trees is an overture, a full voiced prog-rocky opening with thumping piano before a more fluid solo by Keezer leads into a bold brass chorus and a wistful baritone sax solo. It’s a rousing call to arms.

The title track, Red List, sees Landrus use the full range of the baritone’s voice. It both soars and laments. It’s another great example of his arranging as the soloists call and respond with the main body of the players or solos are wrapped around the themes. It breaks down for the last minute of the tune to suggest the peril ahead, as if it can’t continue to hang together.

The track, Giant Panda is dominated by the baritone sax which seeks to capture the movement and the look of the animal. It’s almost a modern day Carnival of the Animals, though tinged with tragedy.

Tigris is probably my favourite on the album. It builds from a guitar/bass/drums opening to a full band peak before a further baritone sax solo over rolling drums and punching percussion. Stabbing piano leads into a soaring, screaming tenor sax solo before Felder brings it home with a solo that incorporates staccato stabs and fluid runs.

Bwindi Forest, (now a nature reserve in South-West Uganda and home to the mountain gorilla), the most discordant track on the album, is full of rage whilst Congo Basin is all space and big skies. Up River is beautiful soulful jazz pushed along by Lonnie Plaxico’s electric bass. The next track Only Eight is another chance for Plaxico to shine, this time on acoustic bass, though only briefly - all of 48 seconds. 

Vaquita, dedicated to and a celebration of the animal (a species of porpoise found in the northern end of the Gulf of California, in Mexico. It is the smallest of all living cetaceans.) The music is 70s soul jazz that conjures up images of the ocean. The solos, by Landrus and Jaleel Shaw are elegant as if to reflect the movement of the porpoise through the water.

On the face of it the closer, Javan Rhino, is an electric boogaloo but it has a darker edge, a shadow emphasised by the baritone sax. The weight of tone is more pessimistic than a lighter toned instrument would have been. It’s not an optimistic ending.

This is an album without a wasted moment. The music reflects Landrus’ concerns and he has amassed a top flight group and arranged them brilliantly. It deserves greater success than it will receive commercially but its profile may be raised by both its timeliness and, I suspect, recognition in any relevant awards later in the year.

There is more information about the album and the issues it raises on Landrus’ website HERE. The IUCN Red List can be found at IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Red List was released in June and is widely available. Dave Sayer

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