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

17328 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 612 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (Sept. 5).

From This Moment On ...

September

Tue 10: ???

Wed 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 11: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 11: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 11: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 12: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 12: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:30pm. £4.00. ‘A Great Day in Harlem’.
Thu 12: The Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Pete Tanton & co.
Thu 12: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. THC with guests Donna Hewitt, Bill Watson, Dave Archbold, Adrian Beadnell, Mark Hawkins.

Fri 13: Jeff Barnhart & Neville Dickie @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Two pianos, two pianists! SOLD OUT!
Fri 13: Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Dilutey Juice @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.00. adv..
Fri 13: Ray Stubbs R & B All-stars @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. Classic blues.

Sat 14: Jeff Barnhart’s Silent Film Fest @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 14: Customs House Big Band w. Ruth Lambert @ St Paul’s Centre, St Paul’s Gardens, Spennymoor DL16 7LR. 7:00pm (6:45pm doors). Tickets £10.00. from the venue or tel: 01388 813404. A ‘BYOB’ event.
Sat 14: Emma Wilson @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00. Acoustic blues.
Sat 14: Rat Pack - Swingin’ at the Sands @ Billingham Forum. 7:30pm.

Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Jude Murphy, Steve Chambers & Sid White @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Panharmonia @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Swing Manouche @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: John Hallam with the James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. A Blaydon Jazz Club 40th anniversary concert!

Thursday, August 08, 2024

Album review: Chet Baker - Late Night Jazz (Elemental Records)

Chet Baker (trumpet, wordless vocal on How High the Moon); Philip Catherine/Nicola Stilo (guitar); Egil Kapstad (piano); Terge Venaas (bass)

Yet another unearthed Chet Baker 'treasure'. This one recorded in Paris in 1988, only months before the trumpet player's mysterious death. Initially recorded as a 'dream project' by Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold who envisioned a collaboration blending jazz with poetic expression. However, for this album the poetry has been omitted and we have to settle for the music.

A selection of well known standards with three alternate takes, three originals by Kapstad and a traditional Norwegian folk song make up the sixteen tracks. Italian guitarist Stilo only plays on the first five tracks before the band stopped for a break and he did a runner with Chet's mouthpiece. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, he was apprehended and the session continued with Catherine on guitar. No explanation was ever given.

Baker plays as well as his fading technique allowed: cutting his coat according to his cloth which had always been his modus operandi and, if that failed he could always sing. There's only one 'vocal' here, a gentle wordless take on How High the Moon.

Of the two guitarists, both are light-fingered albeit in different interpretations of the term with some agile solos from Catherine although when piano and guitar combine in a drummerless rhythm section the end result often tends to be rather plodding.

If you are a Baker completist you'll want this, warts and all. Others may want to have a taste first. Although the new 2-LP & Digipack CD are not due out until October 18 it seems to have been doing the rounds on YouTube for sometime so check it out HERE. Lance         

Skylark; If You Could See me Now; The Bird From Kapingamarangi; How High the Moon; Makin' Whoopee; The Ballad of Buttersmile; Body and Soul; Alice in Wonderland; Blåmann, Blåmann; Children's Waltz; Love For Sale; My Foolish Heart; I Want a Little Girl; Body and Soul (alt. take); If You Could See me Now (alt. take); Makin' Whoopee (alt. take)

2 comments :

ALAN GILES said...

Not the most generous of reviews (e..g. the sarcastic "treasure"). Given the appalling circumstances of his life, especially as the 1980s wore on, I always found the calmness in his playing incredible. He had a tremendous sense of beauty in his tone and delivery. God knows what occasioned the extraordinary theft of his mouthpiece - a joke that went wrong, perhaps? - they had worked together often at the start of the decade (several LPs issued on the Circle label recorded at the Subway Club out of Germany). Unlike this reviewer I am glad it was restored to him. I shall be buying the CD, and I am not expecting to hear Dizzy or Roy Eldridge. Perhaps,if the reviewer thinks he could do better, he should get himself a trumpet and a trio and show us what he can do?. Not that easy with just trumpet, guitar and bass. Chet had made several Steeplechase LPs with Doug Raney at the end of the 1970s and they were great.

Lance said...

Alan, thank you for your comment. Like yourself, I too am a great admirer of the work of Chet Baker from all periods of his tragic life including his latter years. Indeed, for me, much of his later work had a more emotional appeal than some of his earlier work. In particular the London sessions recorded over six nights at the Canteen in 1983 which are a couple of my favourite albums. As such, I was doubly disappointed that, in my opinion, Late Night Jazz didn't quite cut it for me. I hope you get more out of it. I wasn't expecting to hear Dizzy or Roy but I was hoping to hear the latterday Chet whose sound could tear at your heartstrings like few others.
As regards getting a trumpet to see if I can do better .... If that criteria were to be applied then the so-called pundits in music, sports, politics - you name it - would be made redundant overnight. Having said that, I appreciate your observations and you are welcome to join our reviewing team (gigs, albums, whatever) let me know via email: lanceliddle@gmail.com.

Blog Archive