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Bebop Spoken There

Béla Fleck: “ And that's the great thing about live performances, you take people on a journey. It doesn't have to be like something else they've heard. It's not supposed to be". DownBeat, April, 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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Thu 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 28: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm.
Thu 28: Richard Herdman Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 28: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Guests: Josh Bentham (alto sax); Alan Marshall (tenor sax); Neil Brodie (trumpet); Adrian Beadnell (bass); Graham Thompson (keys); Steve Hunter (drums).

Fri 29: FILM: Soul @ The Forum Cinema, Hexham. 12:30pm. Jazz-themed film animation.
Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free. POSTPONED!
Fri 29: Thundercat @ Newcastle City Hall.
Fri 29: John Logan @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 30: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 30: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Whitley Bay Library, York Road, Whitley Bay. 8:00pm.

Sun 31: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 31: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields NE30 1HJ. 3:00pm. Free. Lambert, Alan Law & Paul Grainger.
Sun 31: Sid Jacobs & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. USA/London jazz guitar duo.
Sun 31: Bellavana @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

April
Mon 01: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 01: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.

Tue 02: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Dean Stockdale, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 03: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 03: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 03: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

CD Review: Fred Hersch - (open book)

Fred Hersch (piano)
(Review by Dave Brownlow)
(open book) is jazz piano-master Fred Hersch’s latest recording – his eleventh solo album – which finds him in a particularly reflective and lyrical mood. It is timed to coincide with the publishing of his memoir Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz which reveals his meteoric rise in jazz and his recognition as one of the most individual and expressive artists of his generation.
The music was recorded in a Seoul, South Korea, concert hall on a Hamburg/Steinway grand piano and Fred utilises all the magnificent sonorities throughout.
The Orb first appeared in Hersch’s recent music-theatre show My Coma Dreams and is an out-of tempo exploration of the theme with frequent re-harmonisations and daring phrases. I hear some of the chord-sequence of Stella by Starlight here and there…Benny Golson’s Whisper Not opens like a Bach Two-Part Invention, cleverly going straight into swinging improvisation in the same style with the theme stated only at the very end. I can see a parallel here with J S Bach himself playing keyboard in the court of Frederick The Great and hoping for his pay-cheque at the end of the month! (Bach was a great improviser!) Jobim’s Zingaro is transformed from a bossa-nova to a Chopin-like Nocturne in a minor key and is a graceful, fluid performance.
Next is the nineteen-and a-half minute Through the Forest which forms the centre-piece of the album. This was an unplanned, spontaneous piece where Fred allowed his improvisatory powers full rein in at times a surreal, abstract way. Hersch himself remarks “this is an example of improvising with no safety-net or pre-conceived ideas – I just went wherever it took me until it felt right to arrive at a musical and emotional destination.” I suggest that there are only a handful of musicians in the world today who are capable of a performance of this nature (Keith Jarrett is another) who have the musical knowledge and intelligence to carry it out successfully.
Following this tour-de-force is Plainsong another Hersch composition, a classical-flavoured piece somewhat like a folk-song, with theme and variations where the music meanders along in a melancholic mood. Fred always includes a Monk song in every recital – this one is a jaunty, buoyant effort – Eronel  co-written by Sadik Hakim (Argonne Thornton). Now there’s a name to conjure with! Argonne is believed to have played a small part on piano in the seminal 1945 Charlie Parker session which produced Now’s the Time and Billie’s Bounce! Finally, Billy Joel’s tender song And So It Goes brings the album to its conclusion. Here is a sensitive reading of this piece, beautifully harmonised in a gentle out-of–tempo style where the pianist extracts every bit of emotion from the fragile melody.
So, another in the series of successful albums from Fred Hersch which further enhances his status among today’s master-musicians.
Dave.
(open book) is on Palmetto PM2186 available on 8th September 2017 from:

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