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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

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

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.
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: 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).
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).

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

Monday, August 05, 2024

Album review: Andromeda Turre – From The Earth, A Jazz Suite (Starbilt Records)

Andromeda Turre (voice, piano, crystal bowls, bell tree); Chelsea Baratz (saxes, EWI); Chien Chien Lu (marimba, vibes), Jacquelene Acevedo (perc.); Riza Printup (harp); M’elle (background/choir vocals); Akua Dixon, Lulu Fontan, Catherine Asaad, Terrell Foster-James (choir); Steve Turre (trombone, shells); ELEW (piano); Richie Goods (electric/acoustic bass); Gene Lake (drums); Harold E. Smith (didgeridoo); + Betty Neals (poetry); Dr. Jifunza Wright-Carter, Ms. Margaret Gordon, Dr. Gladys M. Canals, & Rhonda Hiscock (Interviewees)

Well, here we are only 53 years on from Marvin asking What’s Going On we have something that might be regarded as a sequel. Whilst Mr Gaye sang about social problems as much as ecological ones Turre makes no apology for recognising the existential ecological crisis as the major issue and puts it front and centre on this album.

From The Earth blends interviews with leading ecological specialists with sometimes restrained, sometimes furious, backing. Extra  points go to the mighty left hand of ELEW on piano, the standout musician on the session, which is not to damn the others with faint praise, (Goods on bass and Lake on drums are both consistently excellent). The album splits into four spheres of concern; From The Earth, From The Sky, From The Sea and From The Ice with supporting comments from the interviewees stressing the perils the earth currently faces in each.

Stylistically, we have power ballads, some pure jazz, some soul, a bit of didgeridoo on the opening track, a hint of CSNY’s Déjà vu on Amulena (in its long twisting, sinuous opening vocal line), some samba on Sin Agua No Hay Vida and, on Finger on the Trigger, something that opens as if it were inspired by the Jets in West Side Story but explodes into a pure, Monk-ian jazz frenzy with dazzling runs from pianist ELEW and Chelsea Baratz’ sax trying to blow the bloody doors off, before Hydrosphere hints at Pink Floyd in its first few bars before Turre takes it into ecstatic, powerful gospel. She leaves us with the full screen treatment of Critical Mass which opens with delicate, balletic piano, adds a small choir, and builds to a full widescreen message of faith and hope, underpinned by ELEW’s mighty piano playing. This might suggest a bit of a hotchpotch but it is held together by Turre’s personality. This is a woman on a mission and it is her character that dominates and provides the drive and energy to maintain the focus on her central themes.

It’s a powerful and, occasionally, joyful recognition that we are all going to hell in a handcart. Listening to it I found myself alternating between shaking my head at the despair of it all and slinking silkily round the room with a sway I hadn’t managed since before my last operation.

Her website HERE includes videos for the first two singles from the album Contigo and Earth Waltz, a couple of tracks from Stuttgart last year, and a few others, all of which are worth watching.

From The Earth is out now. Dave Sayer

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