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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.

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Geoff Eales @ The Maltings Jazz Weekend - October 14

Geoff Eales (piano)
(Review by Russell)
Lunchtime Saturday, the rain just about holding off on the second day of the inaugural Maltings’ ‘Jazz Weekend’. Berwick upon Tweed bustled as tourists mingled with locals out shopping, bed and breakfasts advertising ‘no vacancies’, the YHA on Dewar’s Lane doing good business.  
At two o’clock a near capacity Henry Travers Studio audience set off on a whirlwind tour of jazz piano from A to Z through one hundred years and more of the recorded history of the music. An almost impossible task, but if anyone could do it, Geoff Eales was the man. Billed simply as ‘The History of Jazz Piano’ Eales adopted the maxim ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. From Scott Joplin to Geoff Eales, and several superstar pianists in between, the chronology was laid out before us.
Ragtime Scott Joplin – Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer – played by Geoff Eales at the Maltings’ Steinway piano – not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon! Eales introduced each piece to, one suspects, an audience more than familiar with both pianists and tunes performed. Jelly Roll Morton (Eales) playing Maple Leaf Rag demonstrated the new thing – ‘swing’. It was clear to all that Eales had the history of jazz piano literally at his fingertips.
A Fats Waller medley – Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Honeysuckle Rose – received rapturous applause, likewise Art Tatum and Tea for Two replete with quotes. Eales said: He was like god. A narrative was developing…Oscar Peterson. On hearing Tatum the great Canadian decided to stop playing,   said Eales. Sometime later OP returned to his practice and the rest is (jazz piano) history. Eales headed straight down the historical track on Night Train calling at Bebop Central to take a look at Bud Powell’s Bouncing with Bud and Thelonious Monk’s ’Round Midnight and Well, You Needn’t.
The house lights went up as Eales closed the first set with Errol Garner’s Misty.

As the second set opened, Fred Thelonius Baker was in the house to listen to his old pal Eales in the ‘locked-hands’ style of George Shearing. From Lullaby of Birdland to Bill Evans. Eales took a moment to fondly recall a tour he had undertaken in 2005 playing the music of Evans, adding the itinerary on that occasion sadly didn’t take him as far north as Berwick. Waltz for Debby provided some compensation, and, perhaps, the Welshman will one day return to play a Bill Evans’ concert. Eales made the observation that Evans, Horace Silver and Cecil Taylor were born within a twelve month period (1928-29), yet each went on to forge his own distinctive style…the impressionism of Evans, Silver’s contrasting Blue Note bluesy bop style and the freeform idiom pioneered by Taylor.

Geoff Eales rounded off his entertaining presentation with compositions by a stellar triumvirate of contemporary jazz pianists. McCoy Tyner’s Passion Dance – in an aside Eales suggesting those present with an understanding of such matters would know that Trane’s one-time sparring partner often incorporates fourths rather than thirds in his playing – and ECM mainstay Keith Jarrett’s My Song leading into Chick Corea’s up tempo Armando’s Rhumba.

Eales’ matinee performance comprised a plethora of styles and to think all were expertly executed by one man…Geoff Eales! By way of farewell, Eales played Eales. The Maltings’ Jazz Weekend is in its infancy. On this evidence, it could develop into a fully-fledged Berwick Jazz Festival.                     
Russell                                    

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