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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Alice Grace Quartet @ King's Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 28: Faye MacCalman + Snape/Sankey @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 28: Zoe Rahman @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Thu 28: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.
Thu 28: Speakeasy @ Queen's Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. £15.00. A Southpaw Dance Company presentation. Dance, audio-visuals, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, swing dancers etc.
Thu 28: Mick Cantwell Band @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Ace blues band.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.

Sat 30: John Pope Quintet + Late Girl + Shapeshifters @ Bobik's, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Sat 30: Papa G's Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

OCTOBER

Sun 01: Smokin' Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm.
Sun 01: Dulcie May Moreno sings Portrait of Sheila @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Moreno sings Sheila Jordan with Giles Strong, Mick Shoulder & John Bradford.
Sun 01: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 2:00pm.
Sun 01: The Easy Rollers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.70., £11.55.
Sun 01: Brand/Roberts/Champion/Sanders @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Sun 01: Papa G's Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 02: FILM: Wattstax; 50th Anniversary @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 8:00pm.

Friday, September 30, 2022

Album review: Brian Lynch & Spheres of Influence – Songbook Vol. 2: Dance The Way U Want To (Hollistic MusicWorks)

Brian Lynch (trumpet); Aldo Salvent, Chris Thompson-Taylor (tenor sax); Kemuel Roig, Alex Brown (piano); Rodner Pedilla (electric bass); Hilario Bell (drums); Murphy Aucamp (percussion).

Latin Jazz, Afro-Caribbean rhythms; they say the hips don’t lie but mine have been known to tell a few fibs in their time. What should go left goes right and vice-versa and I have an ASBO prohibiting me from twerking by court order. But two minutes of this and things are moving, maybe going with the flow and letting your legs, unconsciously, do their thing is the answer and your arse will follow.

Lynch, himself, is one of the last of the Art Blakey alumni, playing with the great man in 1988-1990 and appearing on two albums. This after playing with Horace Silver and the Tokisho Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra in the eighties. Since then he’s released a couple of dozen of his own albums and recorded with Eddie Palmieri and Tito Puente so the Latin vibe is strong in this one. Lynch now teaches at the University of Miami and this is the Miami version of Spheres of Influence.

Songbook Volume 2 was released in July and comes with an extra CD of radio versions and one alternate take. (Vol 1: Bus Stop Serenade, with a completely different quintet, was released last year). There’s a core quartet of trumpet, bass, drums and percussion (lots of percussion) with the other musicians appearing on different tracks as needed. It’s bold, bright and clear and rattles along, all uncompromising elbows and flights of joy. All of the tracks are over 7 minutes long and this gives plenty of time for all involved to really dig in.

It’s mainly covers of tunes from across Lynch’s recording career with two new tunes in The Disco Godfather and E.P’s Plan B with the latter opening the album and we’re straight into it. All these rhythms, all this percussion and Lynch setting his stall out as someone who can fly with both feet on the ground. What’s not to like? A slower passage features Aldo Salvent’s sinuous contemplative tenor.

Change of Plan is a tune Lynch first recorded in 1986 and it’s aged well. A simple bebop phrase is the structure for a series of long well developed solos from Lynch, Kelly and, especially Roig. Even the more mellow tunes, as this is, retain the rhythm and set the toes a-tapping.

Across the Bridge sounds like hard work for Lynch; he’s holding back a tidal wave from the back line who are pushing him on and he meets the challenge with a soaring solo.

It’s altogether slinkier with Dance The Way U Want To. It’s more Latin than Afro-Caribbean but no less fun for that. Chris Thompson-Taylor and Kemuel Roig take the lead before Lynch kicks it up again.

The other new track, The Disco Godfather, dedicated to black humourist and film maker Rudy Ray Moore, opens with a chuckling duet between tenor (Salvent again) and trumpet that borders on free jazz before a propulsive bass line comes in underneath. It continues as a discussion between the two leads; it sounds like a long conversation between old friends, one of who is suggesting new ideas and the other is shooting them down, with different tempi, call and response sections, disagreements and conclusions.

Thompson-Taylor and Roig take the lead again on Tom Harrell on tenor and piano respectively, challenging each other before the rhythm section comes to the fore. Everything is clean, powerful, dynamic and precise. It is wonderful driving funk. A blistering solo from Lynch tops it all off like the cherry on the icing. A great track.

Que Seria La Vida is a shuffling bolero at a lower tempo. The lights are lowered with no drop in intensity as the percussionists still cover the bases. It’s a slow, late night ballad featuring a duet between Lynch and Alex Brown on piano that owes a little to The Shadow of Your Smile. It’s one for after closing hours, ties and tongues are loosened. Another thing of elegance and beauty, full of romantic yearning.

Closer Awe Shocks takes us back up to where we’ve been for most of the album. It’s another high-speed hurtle through solos by Alex Brown and CT-T before Lynch reminds us whose group this is, punching holes in the sky, he’s taking us higher again. Dust off those cowbells, claves and wooden blocks and join in.

A few extra points go to Robin D Williams for the artwork.

Songbook Vol 2 is available now through this BANDCAMP link. The CD comes with an extra disc of one alternate take and 8 radio edits, all still worth hearing, even if they are, in the main abridged versions of what’s on Disc 1. Dave Sayer

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