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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 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

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sat 21: Lindsay Hannon Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £15.00. ‘Swinging with Christmas Songs’.
Sat 21: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 21: Jackson’s Wharf Xmas Party @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 7:00pm. Free. Featuring the New ’58 Jazz Collective.
Sat 21: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sun 22: Hot Club du Nord @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £15.00. + bf. Xmas party. SOLD OUT!
Sun 22: Red Kites Jazz @ Gibside Chapel, nr. Rowlands Gill. 1:00pm. Admission charge applies.
Sun 22: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 22: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Revolutionaires @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb rhythm & blues outfit.
Sun 22: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger & Mark Robertson @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Line-up TBC.
Sun 22: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music (musicians TBC).
Sun 22: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Zerox, Sandhill, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors).

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Mon 23: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 4:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Mon 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. TBC.
Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free. TBC.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 27: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

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

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Album review: Ricky Alexander - Just Found Joy (Turtle Bay Records)

Ricky Alexander (soprano sax, clarinet, vocals, arrangements); Jon-Erik Kellso (cornet); Dalton Ridenhour (piano); Jon Thomas (piano tks 1,3,4,6,7,11); Brennen Ernst (guitar tks 2,4,8,9,10,12); Rob Atkins (bass); Kevin Dorn (drums) + Vanisha Gould (vocals tks 2,5,8,10).

Despite being basically a quintet, the overall feeling I get from my first listen is of those 1940 recordings by the Bechet-Spanier Big Four. On soprano, Alexander has that wide vibrato associated with Bechet although Kellso is a more assertive figure than Muggsy was which makes for more of a level playing field. The illusion is particularly compounded on those tracks where Ernst provides a link between the two just as Carmen Mastren did on the Bechet-Spanier dates. 

People Will Say We're in Love, is taken at a much faster tempo than in the film (Oklahoma) and it works, setting the scene for 45 minutes of small group swing.

Sweet Lorraine. A Rhapsody in Blue(ish) intro from Ridenhour leads into a distinctive vocal from Gould. Alexander adds some vocal harmony. Bechet-Spanier also did a 'job' on Lorraine

King Porter Stomp - and stomp it does! A Lindy Hopper's dream tempo with solos to drive them on to terpsichorean madness.

Promenade, composed by Alexander, has a lovely relaxed tempo.

Gould returns for a bouncy It Had to be You. A suggestion of Pearl Bailey in her phrasing and there's nothing wrong with that. More fine solos from horns and piano.

Just One of Those Things is much more than it says on the tin. Cole Porter may not have visualised his song being treated in this way but the up-tempo rhythm and the solos don't do it any harm at all.

High Society - with a difference! It was strutting merrily along, as versions of this hoary old New Orleans march invariably do and I waited without a lot of enthusiasm for the traditional, obligatory, clarinet solo - I've heard it so many times I could probably sing it backwards - if I could sing that is! Here it comes, but, hang about, he's playing soprano and not only that but Kellso's joined in and the pair of them are trading, duetting, counter-punching. They've taken this society even higher and if that wasn't enough Thomas' piano solo gives it yet another lift.

Fine and Dandy and another vocal by Gould which is fine and dandy with me. Alexander on clarinet is also fine and Kellso's solo is just dandy.

Don't Blame Me has Alexander exercising his vocal chords, Kellso blows, Alexander growls à la Pee Wee, piano strides and the leader has another go at singing. Maybe not as good as Frank but better than Nancy.

Spring is Here, a sensitive take by Gould on the Rodgers and Hart classic.

The Touch of Your Lips, a gentle swinger with the two horns working well together with piano soloing over a fast shuffling rhythm.

Rubber Plant Rag, seemingly, is an old clarinet showpiece composed by George L.Cobb in 1909 and described on the sheet music as a 'stretcherette' - the mind boggles! Alexander, Ridenhour and the rhythm boys prove they can stretcherette with the best.

Highly recommended for those who like to party to classic jazz. Lance 

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