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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.

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.

Monday, October 10, 2016

CD Review: Rik Wright's Fundamental Forces - Subtle Energy

Rik Wright (guitar); Jim DeJoie (clarinet); Geoff Harper (bass); Greg Campbell (drums/perc). 
(Review by Steve T) 
Another good album, another piano-less quartet, another guitar/ woodwind frontline, clarinet standing in for the various saxophones featured on the original versions of these five tracks taken from his previous albums, though the player remains the same.
At a little over forty minutes, it's also another short album, which plays well to us oldies, groomed on twelve inches of plastic or (what seemed like) twelve miles of tape. Restrictions imposed by the limitations of the format but, with so many CDs (not to mention double albums) seeming too long, maybe fortyish minutes is a reasonable length of time before putting on something else.

Clarinet is not normally an instrument I'm taken by but, with a little help from Lord Edis, Arun Ghosh and this, maybe it was always the context that was wrong for me. Wright 'has always had an affinity for the sound of clarinet and guitar together...predicts the relationship...is a lovely one', and it is.
The notes inform us the album is 'more laid back than its predecessors', but also that Yearning and Nonchalant (tracks 3 and 4) are its 'softer centre'. The remaining three tracks all build during their respective lengths, in the rhythm section, through increasingly propulsive drumming and 'a straightforward bass line which...ripples outward into universal resonances'. On top you get the guitar sneaking around under the clarinet before taking over and the clarinet then coming back in behind the guitar lead, using different sounds and textures to build to a rockier climax.
However, the difference between these and the 'softer' tracks is one of degree and, despite his influences being routed in rock as well as Jazz, it never quite explodes, a common quibble I have with guitarists.
The Jazz establishment still hasn't quite accepted Jazz-rock, and particularly John McLaughlin into the mainstream, as evidenced by Downbeat readers recently voting Pat Metheny and not McLaughlin (or for that matter Benson) as its fourth guitarist in their Hall of Fame, which must have confounded and embarrassed them both.  
Having said all that, you really can't win. If an artist records an album with great variety, it's a mess lacking any direction or flow, and if you put out an album with the same flavour throughout, it's accused of being samey.
This album fits the latter, which is actually where most of the truly great albums are, and while it isn't that, it's a fine listen anyway.
Out now on HipSync Records.
Steve T.

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