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Bebop Spoken There

Orrin Evans: “Now, getting a teaching spot is the new record deal”. (DownBeat, November, 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

17487 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 761 of them this year alone and, so far, 66 this month (Oct. 30).

From This Moment On ...

November

Tue 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval NE25 0AT. 12:30pm. £12.00. ‘Guy Fawkes Steak & Ale Pie & Pea Lunch’. To book tel: 0191 237 3697.
Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 06: The Horne Section’s Hit Show @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 07: Jazz Appreciation North East/Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘George - named musicians, vocalists & composers (Chisholm, Duke, Lewis, Shearing, Benson, Melly, Gershwin et al)’.
Thu 07: Aki Remally: The Gil Scott-Heron Songbook @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Remally (guitar, vocals); Fraser Urquhart (piano); Tom Wilkinson (bass); Max Popp (drums).
Thu 07: Rat Pack Live @ Whitley Bay Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Thu 07: Mo Scott @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guest band night with the new Pensacola Boulevard: Josh Bentham (trumpet!); Donna Hewitt (clarinet); Ron Smith (bass); Graham Thompson (keys); Mark Hawkins (drums); Django ZaZou (trombone); Vicky Jackson (vocals).

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm.
Fri 08: TC & the Groove Family + Swannek + Knats @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.

Sat 09: Moscow Drug Club @ Hamsterley Village Hall, Co. Durham DL13 3QF. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sat 09: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 10: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free. A ‘second Sunday in the month’ residency.
Sun 10: Panharmonia @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £6.00.
Sun 10: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 10: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 10: Moscow Drug Club @ Lesbury Village Hall, nr. Alnwick NE66 3PP. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sun 10: SH#RP Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Tue 12: Matthew Forster Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.
Tue 12: Phil’s Elastic Band @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Free, but ticketed, book online.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Friday, October 20, 2023

Album Review: Paul Taylor - Interludes

Paul Taylor (keyboards and bass pedals)

Some of you may have heard some of this music if you went to any of the gigs in this year’s Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music. You may also have heard part of it ringing out if you found yourself near Newcastle Civic Centre on recent early Friday afternoons. It was commissioned by Festival leading man, Wesley Stephenson, to be played as interval music before and in between performances and, arranged for the Edith Adamson Carillon at the Civic Centre, to be played across the City. The Carillon, at 22 tonnes, is probably the heaviest instrument to be included on a jazz album anywhere, ever.

I managed to catch the last performance by the Carillon after the Alcyona Mick concert at the L&P and I recognised a few of her audience who, along with Ms Mick herself, had wandered up to the central space of the Civic Centre. One guy sat cross-legged on one of the stepping stones across the moat and attempted to attain a Zen like intimacy with the music until the constant Northern drizzle drove him under cover.

The album itself is difficult to classify and we humans like an easy label. It’s a single piece of just under an hour but is it jazz? (Yes, in bits). Is it third stream? (Again, parts are). Is it ambient music? (If there’s such a thing as intrusive ambient).  Is it prog? (Again, in part). Soundscapes could be the word but that covers such a wide range of possibilities, and Taylor has previous on soundscapes on his Avalon of the Heart album. It could be dinner music if it weren’t so demanding of attention in places BUT, of course, it was commissioned to not be that intrusive.  

Interludes opens with the piece for the Carillon, enhanced by effects. It’s a ghostly, spectral, echoing piece that fades into very delicate ambient swirls that reminded me of the early part of Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays’ As Falls Wichita….before the dramatic release that occurs part way through that track.  The music ebbs and flows, much is light and ethereal but there are passages that include lower notes that anchor it in place for a moment. Some listeners may be relieved to hear something familiar in a brief brisk piano section part way through and a later section features some angular piano that nudges Interludes back towards jazz, but most of it is more electronic ambient. (Later a plucked, electronically treated guitar also makes a brief appearance).

There is a lovely passage about 40 minutes in where it sounds like Taylor’s piano is playing among the bells of the Carillon and lighter notes, possibly from tubular bells (are we mentioning Tubular Bells?), all mingle together in a spectrum of percussive sounds.

It’s a fascinating, engrossing album and it’s hard to do it full justice in such a clumsy medium like the written word. You have to fall into it and become immersed. File it next to Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders' Promises

Interludes is now available on CD  (New Jazz and Improvised Music Recordings) or to Download HERE on Bandcamp.  (The Download splits the music into two tracks whilst the CD is a single piece of music). Dave Sayer

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