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Bebop Spoken There

Delfeayo Marsalis: "Slide Hampton once told me that it's not always the person that is playing the highest or playing the fastest that's making the greatest impact." - (DownBeat March 2023).

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

15217 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 236 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (March 16).

From This Moment On ...

March

Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 20: Central Bar Quintet plays Wes Montgomery @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 7:30pm. Feat. Joe Steels.

Tue 21: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 21: Jam session @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. House trio: Jacob Egglestone (guitar); Jamie Watkins (bass guitar); Bailey Rudd (drums).

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Traveller's Rest, Cockerton. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public). Note change of venue - this week only.
Wed 22: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Thu 23: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Bar Loco, Newcasatle. From 6:30pm 'til late. Free. Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra jam session. All welcome (students & non-students).
Thu 23: Kerrin Tatman + John Garner & John Pope @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 23: Sunna Gunnlaugs & Julia Hülsmann @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm. A two-piano gig. A Sage Gateshead-JNE promotion.
Thu 23: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano.
Thu 23: Sleep Suppressor @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00., £8.00. adv. Upstairs.
Thu 23: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 24: FILM: Mo' Better Blues @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Fri 24: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Scarth Hall, Staindrop, Co. Durham. 8:00pm. £10.00.
Fri 24: Archipelago + Bulbils @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 25: Vermont Big Band @ Walker Community Centre, Walker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Fundraiser for Benfield Juniours Football Club. Hot food available, BYOB.
Sat 25: John Logan & Friends @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rat Pack, Motown etc. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Thursday, January 26, 2023

Album review: Dave Brubeck Quartet - Debut in The Netherlands 1958

Dave Brubeck (piano); Paul Desmond (alto sax); Eugene Wright (bass); Joe Morello (drums).

It's always a delight when undiscovered gems emerge from the vaults. This is doubly so, nay doubly doubly so, when it is the classic Brubeck Quartet in concert.

Recorded at Amsterdam's Concertgetbouw in November 1958 it captures the group at the first major pinnacle of their jazz journey preceding the worldwide acclaim of the best selling album Time Out (Take Five etc) and, maybe I'm out on a limb here, but this remains, for me,  the pinnacle.

All four are at the top of their game and if Brubeck occasionally sounds a little clunky, at the same time, so did Monk! And Brubeck's chord voicings are as good as anyone's.

Desmond was perhaps the most lyrical alto player since the pre-bop days of Hodges and Carter. He didn't have the bite of Bird but he had the same feeling and such fluency.

Wright did the business. Brubeck had had a variety of bassists but, with Wright, he'd found the right (no pun intended) man for job. 

In Joe Morello you had the drummer's drummer (big feature on Watusi Drums). I recall way back when I was playing in a club with a lovely drummer, Alan Ingham. It was a Saturday, he'd got married in the morning then, instead of going to the reception as one does after getting married, he went off to a Joe Morello drum clinic. He later got divorced.

As I said, Morello cast a spell over drummers. Maybe even more so than Buddy Rich. Morello was the drummer with the technique that was only just out of reach whereas with Buddy he was ten miles away and maybe you didn't want to go down that road anyway!

With the exception of Steve Race (and myself), back then the critics in the jazz mags were somewhat condescending towards Brubeck who would soon be laughing at them all the way to the bank.  

This is a welcome addition to the Brubeck discography and one that comes out, in retrospect, as way above his more lauded albums. It reminds me of the night when  the late Jim McDowell and myself  travelled down by train from Newcastle to Leeds, which, in 1958, was akin to flying to Mars and back in a day.

It was worth it as this album proves. Lance.

Order.

Two Part Contention; Someday my Prince Will Come; These Foolish Things; One Moment Worth Years; For All we Know; Watusi Drums; The Wright Groove; The Duke; Take the A Train (incomplete)

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