Total Pageviews

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

17372 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 656 of them this year alone and, so far, 61 this month (Sept. 17).

From This Moment On ...

September

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: Vieux Carré Hot Four @ The Beehive, Hartley Lane, Earsdon Whitley Bay NE25 0SZ. 4:30pm-6:30pm.
Sat 21: Baghdaddies @ Two by Two, Albion Row, Byker, Newcastle NE6 1RQ. 6:00pm.
Sat 21: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Northumberland Club, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. SOLD OUT!
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!

Tue 24: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv. from Tully’s of Rothbury). Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 24: Sarah Gillespie @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £16.50. Duo performance with Chris Montague.

Wed 25: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 25: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 25: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 25: Moonlight Serenade Orchestra UK: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Middlesbrough Theatre. 7:30pm.

Thu 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 26: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Contemporary Jazz & the Piano’.
Thu 26: The New 58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 26: Jo Harrop & Friends @ Hexham Abbey. 8:00pm. ‘An Evening with Jo Harrop & Friends’. A Hexham Abbey Festival of Music & Arts event. £20.00., £5.00. child/student.
Thu 26: Neil Yates & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 26: Loco House Band @ Bar Loco, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 26: Tees Hot Club @ Dorma’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Mark Toomey, Neil Brodie, Graham Thompson, Adrian Beadnell.

Friday, September 22, 2023

Album review: Masumi Ormandy - Beyond the Sea.

Masumi Ormandy (vocals); Dean Johnson (bass); Tim Horner (drums); Allen Farnham (piano, synth., arrangements) + (collective on various tks)  Sara Caswell (violin); Jody Redhage Ferber (cello); Bria Skonberg (trumpet); John Allred (trombone); Danny Bacher (soprano sax, vocal); Houston Person, Tim Ries (tenor sax); Mino Cinelu (perc.); Chieli Minucci, Paul Meyers (guitar); Anders Bostrom (flute) Roseanna Vitro (vocal).

Japanese vocalist Ormandy moved to New York, via Tokyo and Frisco, to fulfil her dream of becoming a singer studying with Roseanna Vitro who appears on the final track.

Beyond the Sea is Ormandy's second album. She recorded the previous one when she was a mere seventy-seven years old. Now, seven years later (do the maths) the voice is still younger than springtime yet, paradoxically, with a maturity that defies time.

Accompanied by a choice selection, in various permutations, of NYC's finest jazz musicians it puts to bed the myth that singers deteriorate with age. At least those that don't burn the candle at both ends with late nights and the usual vices.

The opening/title track, Beyond the Sea, is taken slower than Bobby Darin's hit version and is none the worse for that with the strings and sop sax (or was it the dreaded synth?) setting the mood. 

I Can't Give You Anything But Love is a Dixieland romp with gutsy solos by Skonberg and Allred. Bacher duets vocally as well as blowing soprano.

Smile isn't one of my favourite standards but this version moved it up a notch or two. Nice piano and sympathetic strings over a bossa rhythm.

Like a River Flowing, a Japanese song with English lyrics, has some tenor sax from Ries who noodles behind the vocal. 

Here's to Life has violin and cello adding to the poignancy of the lyric.

Sentimental Journey shuffles along nicely with Allred, Bacher and Skonberg, tightly muted, giving it that swingy feel the tune deserves.

I'm Through With Love. Remember MM singing this in Some Like it Hot? Ormandy may be eighty four but she conveys the same emotion and there's also beautiful tenor from Houston Person.

Tea For Tea. After an out of tempo vocal verse it moves on to a Latin cha-cha rhythm with some tasty violin from Caswell.

I Left my Heart in San Francisco. When someone such as Tony Bennett has laid down the template for a song then the deck is stacked against the rest. Nevertheless, Ormandy doesn't fold and she offers an acceptable alternative.

It's Only a Paper Moon. More great tenor from Houston P alongside an excellent vocal.

Ringo No Uta (Apple Song). a Japanese folk song that not only has Ormandy's mentor Vietro joining her but also has a stunning flute solo from Bostro.

You won't hear many vocals as good as this by a singer as old as this and, nor will there be many vocals as good as this by many a younger singer - magic! Lance

Available on Miles High Records.

No comments :

Blog Archive