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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

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

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.

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Album review: Jesper Thilo Quartet, '80 - Live at Jazzcup'

Jesper Thilo (tenor sax/clarinet); Søren Kristiansen (piano); Daniel Franck (bass); Frands Rifbjerg (drums).

Denmark may be heading for the airport after losing to Australia in the World Cup but, on the evidence displayed in this album, in jazz terms, the country's musicians are up there with the best.

The Danish reedsman, 80-year-old at the time of this live recording last November,  gives a masterclass in mainstream tenor playing on this, one of the most swinging albums I've heard this year. Think of Hawkins, Webster, Jacquet, Lockjaw, Cobb or Guy Lafitte - Thilo is from that school. He swings like the aforementioned giants once did over a rhythm section that is with him all the way. This is tenor playing with guts and no small sense of humour (catch the mini coda at the end of Blue 'n' Boogie).

Stardust, complete with verse, is as good an instrumental version of Hoagy's classic as I've yet to hear.

He's no mean clarinettist either (it was his first instrument) displaying a fluidity of tone that brings a rare warmth to If I Had You and Memories of You.

His fellow Danes are of equal standing: Kristiansen has a solo piano feature on Tenderly that loses nothing by comparision with the classic Oscar Peterson recording. I'm sure Oscar would have shown his approval. Bassist Franck is showcased on Sweets to the Sweet and Rifbjerg - no shrinking violet he -  drives things along on the uptempo numbers whilst playing with subtlety and sensitivity on the ballads.

The final Lester Leaps In goes out on another 'rhythm changes' theme - Anthropology - before finishing to well deserved applause from the audience at Copenhagen's Jazzcup on Montmartre Blues.

They don't come much better than this! Lance.

Available Dec. 16 on Stunt Records.

Oh Gee!; Body and Soul; Just Friends; If I Had You; Blue 'n' Boogie; Sweets to the Sweet; Tenderly; I'll Remember April; Memories of You; Like Someone in Love; Stardust; Lester Leaps in/Montmartre Blues

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