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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

17444 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 718 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Oct. 10).

From This Moment On ...

October

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
The 10: Classic Swing @ Carlisle Rugby Club, Warwick Rd., Carlisle. 8:30pm. £9.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: The Jazz Quartet + Stratosphonic @ Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £15.00. A Rotary Club of Hexham event. The Jazz Quartet (Jude Murphy & co), Stratosphonic (blues/rock). CANCELLED!
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 11: Mo Scott Band @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 12: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Michael Woods @ Victoria Tunnel, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv.). Country blues guitar & vocals.
Sat 12: Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.28, £11.16, £9.04. A two-track recording launch gig.
Sat 12: Stuart Turner @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rockabilly, rhythm & blues etc. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 12: Lapwing Jazz Trio @ The Ship Inn, Low Newton. 8:00pm. Free. New trio: Paula Whitty, Richard Herdman, Jude Murphy.

Sun 13: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Emma Wilson @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 13: Catfish Keith @ The Cluny. 7:00pm. Country blues.
Sun 13: Cath Stephens & Paul Grainger @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Stephens & Grainger, one third of a triple bill.
Sun 13: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 14: Black is the Color of My Voice @ Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by Nina Simone, performed by Nicholle Cherrie.

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano), Paul Grainger (double bass), Bailey Rudd (drums).

Wed 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 16: Cath Stephens’ improvisation workshop @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 4:30-6:00pm. Collaborative group focusing on vocal improvisations.
Wed 16: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 16: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

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

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Charles Lloyd Ocean Trio @ Barbican (EFG London Jazz Festival) - Nov. 17

Inevitably, tonight's gig exemplified the Art of the Trio. Charles Lloyd and the many iterations of his Ocean Trio have accrued a number of albums and concerts that show this master at his best.

(© Ash Knotek)
Opening for him was a contrasting but complementary trio, that of Norway's
Mette
Henriette, a more austere but no less engaging tenorist, accompanied by Johan Lindvall on piano and Judith Hamann on cello. Henriette's compositions (mainly drawn this evening from her latest album Drifting) are framed by gentle choral figures from Lindvall - I don't think I've ever heard a piano played so softly - and often playing in unison with Hamann's exquisite cello.

After a tentative opening, Henriette's tone focused, and her prowess in complex lines delivered with novel & intricate fingering, trills and startling breath control began to grip the hall. One couldn't avoid comparisons with the established north-European sounds of Garbarek and the recent collaborations of Andy Sheppard, which is no bad thing.  She has a distinctive presence, not only in her command of the tenor, but her very stature.  It’s hard to avoid the cliché of an ice maiden, but her shimmering steely-white gown and her still presence at the epicentre of the stage suggested a bright silver reed in a sonic sea. Her grounding in theatre and performance art paid dividends, making us hang on to her every breath and, more importantly, every silence. It was where her compositions started and finished.

 

On the way, contrasts were notably supplied by Hamann, playing every part of the cello, from the farthest reach of the tailpiece through the length of the strings. At one point, her suddenly severe bowing evoked cracking wood, a stark contrast to Henriette & Lindvall's folk-like melodies beneath. For all the apparent Nordic austerity, the drama in this was startlingly effective. Perhaps a trio that ignores a conventional rhythm section is a step too far for some dyed-in-the-wool jazzers, but I would hope that anyone with a feeling for the broad church of jazz would embrace the tone, technique and dramatic richness of Henriette's music.

 

(© Ash Knotek)
Coming from the American post-bop tradition, Lloyd's set offered something more familiar to the jazz audience. A confession: he was my gateway to the genre, his early (1964) Discovery set getting a re-release as Bizarre on CBS Jazz Realm at an affordable 29/11 in 1968. It disrupted and enriched my teenage prog-blues focus with gorgeous
tunes like Sweet Georgia Bright and Forest Flower, and subsequently brought me to Jarrett and DeJohnette through the Fillmore sets. So tonight was a full circle. And while his Ocean Trio (Gerald Clayton on piano and Marvin Sewell on guitar) eschewed the conventional bass & drum rhythm section, there was nothing missing in rhythmic drive or complexity.

Lloyd's command of his instruments (mainly a gorgeously plangent tenor, plus an outing for generously rounded flute and clarinet) is second to none. He stands alongside Rollins and Shorter in fluidity and sheer bravura, with even the fastest run or surprising swoop skilfully articulated and focused. Yeah, he's got a lotta technique, but my gosh you feel it! There's a spiritual basis to all he does - not least in the encore’s Tagi (Lament), a Brahmin text he intones over his partners' vamping - but gospel, standards and blues inform every number. 

 

Opening with Ornette Coleman's Peace, set the bar high, but established the Trio's role as soloists and rhythm section. A notable blues excursion from Sewell, swapping to a bottleneck & Fender had us whooping, even if the boss didn't join in.  Lloyd has established some new standards in the last decade or so, the gorgeous gospel-inflected Lift Every Voice and the ballad How Can I Tell You?, with generous soloing of great delicacy from Clayton and Sewell along the way in the flute-led Booker’s Garden.

 

Like Henriette's opening set, there was always space to breathe, to play gently to help us listen, and hang on to those effortless low Cs and B-flats. Clayton's solos were as expansive as Sewell's were complex, and Lloyd seemed to relish them.

 

What a marvellous opportunity to explore the Art of the Trio, specifically, tenor-led trios, both of the tradition and the future. To hear a new generation handle the baton so superbly in the same evening as a master effortlessly displays a lifetime’s skill was quite a privilege. Quite honestly, the distance between them, in terms of sheer inventive musicianship, was negligible. Bigger bands have their place but here was everything to play for. Richard Lee

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