Jazzwise的June 2024目录

While the piano has perhaps been the preeminent force in jazz in recent times, the saxophone arguably remains the music’s clarion call: just a couple of notes from a sax can pull us into that familiar soundworld we call jazz. And some 178 years on from when Adolphe Sax first patented his game-changing instrument design in 1846, the saxophone continues to make headlines – not least with Shabaka Hutchings’ much-publicised decision to stop playing one in favour of flutes – while also inspiring new generations of innovators. This issue offers a snapshot of the current state of play with two modern day titans – Chris Potter and Tim Garland – both at the top of their game and pushing themselves and their music into new territory with the saxophone front…

Dubbed "the first psychedelic jazz group" by San Franciscan hippy promoter Chet Helms early in 1967, the Charles Lloyd Quartet were soaring stateside following the release of Forest Flower, which sold over a million copies, earned him DownBeat’s 1967 Jazz Artist of The Year Award and made Miles Davis look distinctly like yesterday’s man. Lloyd’s highly adventurous young band, including Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette and Ron McClure were shaking up jazz followers across America, Europe and even the Soviet Union and, significantly, attracting a growing new audience of counter-cultural music fans. Now it was the UK’s turn, and with the 'Summer of Love' in full flower the quartet made their UK debut with two shows at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 17 June 1967. Their forward-looking composition, mystic modal meditations…

South London’s World Heart Beat Music Academy and venue continues its eclectic programme of jazz events with two notable premieres and a wide selection of jazz artists from the UK, Europe and US. Things kick off with leading jazz violinist Tcha Limberger’s 'Viper Club' band (10 May) mixing up gypsy jazz and swing; Jerome Etcheberry (trumpet), Dave Kelbie (rhythm guitar), and Sebastien Girardot (double bass) all feature. Pianist Julian Joseph premieres his new ‘Atmospheres In Audio Theatre’ work (17 May): this is presented in surround sound courtesy of the venue’s immersive d&b Soundscape speaker system. Joseph is joined by his new trio – Kaidi Akinnibi on saxophone, and Alok Verma on percussion. There’s also an appearance by improvising violinist Rebekah Reid, who explores jazz repertoire combined with effects and live…

Global audiences will remember saxophonist Casey Benjamin, who has died at the age of 45, as one of the key members of pianist Robert Glasper’s Experiment band. With his crimson braids and lab tech glasses he was akin to a super-hip sci-fi character, but instead of wielding a ray gun, the horn player had a not-so-secret weapon in the shape of a vocoder. Along with a bank of effects and keyboard Benjamin used it to add to the decidedly futuristic slant of 2012’s Grammy winning and chart smashing album Black Radio and 2013’s Black Radio 2, two epochal unions of neo-soul, hip-hop and jazz. The explicitly synthetic sound Benjamin produced was in the lineage of Herbie Hancock’s disco-fusion heyday, and it gelled powerfully with Glasper’s material. That said, Benjamin’s alto…

In 2019 he would tell Jazzwise he’s been, “itching to get back to grooveland”. Referring to his influential Underground band formed in the mid-noughties, Potter’s updated version of ‘grooveland’ rocketed to a whole new level with the eponymous recording of his electric ensemble Circuits. But now, five years on, the release of Eagle’s Point, boasting a big-name quartet on UK’s Edition label, signals another switch in direction in Potter’s ever-evolving discography as he returns to his acoustic jazz roots. That’s putting it far too neatly though. Eagle’s Point is an album that more accurately reconciles his past with his present; perhaps better described as a modern-day renovation of the ‘classic’ acoustic jazz model. To some degree it’s a reverse gear to when his career took off over three decades ago…

Landmark Recording Excellent  Good Average Disappointing Arild Andersen/Daniel Sommer/Rob Luft As Time Passes April Records APR127 (CD, LP, DL) Arild Andersen (b), Rob Luft (g) and Daniel Sommer (d). Rec. 9-19 March 2023 Arild Andersen has long worn the mantle ‘Bass Legend’ with distinction, his playing here as effortless as it is faultless. He has also long been an enthusiastic supporter of emerging young talent, selflessly mentoring a long list of musicians over the years who have listened and learned at the hands of a master. Although this trio is nominally led by drummer Daniel Sommer, Andersen’s hand is also on the tiller because in early 2023, Sommerwas participating in the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma Programme at the Danish National Academy of Music, which allowed him to select a mentor to…

Amy Gadiaga All Black Everything Jazz re:freshed JRF 0054 (LP, DL) Amy Gadiaga (v, b), Joseph Oti (t), Luke Bacchus (p), Simon Lamb (d), with Tom Waters (as) and Christ-Stéphane Boizi (tb). Rec. date not stated All Black Everything has been an awfully long time coming, but it’s been well worth the wait. Singer, bassist, composer, arranger and producer Amy Gadiaga has been threatening to break through for quite a while, despite getting noticed with her 2022 single ‘Everything I Do’, but if there’s any justice in the world, this 26-minute EP is the release that should finally do it. Like all the best music these days, it defies categorisation, but what all five tunes on this EP have in common is sublime melody, hipness and warmth. And despite all…

Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer But Who’s Going To Play The Melody? Mack Avenue MAC1155 (CD, LP, DL) EDITOR’S CHOICE Chrstian McBride and Edgar Meyer (b). Rec. date not stated Team up one of the world’s leading classical bassists with his counterpart from the jazz environment, and the results should be interesting. The opening two tracks here, with Meyer plucking neat ostinato bass patterns, with some percussive knocks and slaps, while McBride plays some quite remarkable bowed figures (and a fine pizzicato section in his own ‘Barnyard Disturbance’) seem initially to set a precedent for the rest of the album. But with two such eminent and resourceful musicians, they are far too experienced and wily to stick to a formula. The finest moment – in complete contrast – is McBride’s…

Strictly Smokin’ & Friends Jazz Sounds Records JSR0019 (CD, DL) Michael Lamb (t, arr, MD), Dick Stacey, Dave Hignett, Pete Tanton, Gordon Marshall (t) Kieran Parnaby, Mark Ferris, Chris Kurji-Smith, John Flood, Chris Gray (tb), Steve Summers, Keith Robinson (as, f), Jamie Toms (ts, cl), Dave Kerridge (ts, fl), Sue Ferris (bs, bcl), Graham Don (p), Pawel Jedrzejewski (g), Michael Whent (b), Guy Swinton (d). Guests: Mike Lovatt (t), Bruce Adams (cnt), Mark Nightingale (tb), Alan Barnes (as), Paul Booth (ss), Gareth Lockrane (f), Ross Stanley (org), Polly Gibbons and Anthony Strong (v). Rec. 31 October 2021 North-East based trumpeter Lamb founded the Strictly Smokin’ Big Band in 2004 (see story in Jazzwise 295) and has kept it going ever since. Now comes this new release, the third in a…

Live Vol. 1 Soul Bank Music SBM026CD/LP (CD, LP, DL) Live Vol. 2 Soul Bank Music SBM027LP/CD (CD, 2LP, DL) Brian Auger (org, ky, v), Jack Mills (g), Barry Dean (b), Steve Ferrone (d) and Alex Ligertwood (v). Rec. 1974 Despite the rambunctious energy of Auger’s various line ups, live was where it was at for the Hammond man’s bands. And never more so than with the Oblivion Express. Well, we say Hammond man – Auger’s early heroes were the likes of Lonnie Liston Smith – but these re-issues regally drip with Fender Rhodes piano. Which is no surprise, given that by the early 1970s Auger was in the thrall of Herbie Hancock in his jazz-funk, Headhunters mode. So, revel in an epic take on ‘Maiden Voyage’ which captures all…

Nancy Wilson But Beautiful Capitol/Pure Pleasure PPAN ST798 (LP) Nancy Wilson (v), Hank Jones (p), Gino Bertachini (g), Ron Carter (b) and Grady Tate (d). Rec. November 1969 Peggy Lee Is That All There Is? Capitol/Pure Pleasure PPAN ST386 (LP) Peggy Lee (v), plus various uncredited musicians. Rec. 8 June 1967 – 15 October 1969 Two splendid Capitol albums, given the Pure Pleasure reissue treatment (with excellent sound and authentic packaging). The NancyWilson LP, made with a small group of top-notch jazzers, is often dismissed (as is Wilson herself) by the jazz police forveering too far into mainstream soul and pop; in both cases, this is an unfair charge. The balladic material she tackles here has impeccable jazz cred, consisting as it does of tunes by Ellington, Berlin, Arlen, Van…

A new album entitled Remembrance, featuring the final recordings of the late piano luminary Chick Corea and multi-award winning banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, is released on 10 May on the Thirty Tigers imprint. It’s described as “a moving final document of the duo’s deep creative and personal rapport which they first showcased on their 2007 Latin Grammy-winning The Enchantment. Corea’s death from cancer at age 79 in 2021, devastated the jazz world, and these recordings will be seen as an important addition to the pianist’s musical legacy; they feature three previously unreleased Corea compositions as well as five short free improvisations, or ‘impromptus’, that Fleck has infused with written music. Recorded both live in concert (on what was the duo’s final tour in 2019) and via traded sound files in…

It’s often forgotten that the Montreux Jazz Festival began as a European talent-spotting competition, with among its earliest prize winners Dusko Goykovic (1967), John Surman, Jan Garbarek and Louis Stewart (all 1968). And if you believed the documentary They All Came Out To Montreux, the guest appearances of Charles Lloyd in 1967 or Nina Simone and Bill Evans the following year are unworthy of mention. The impression given is that it all started with the late Les McCann (1935-2003) and Eddie Harris in June 1969. Their resultant album Swiss Movement is a fascinating period piece, and it’s basically McCann’s set. (Eddie Harris was a separate act with his quartet including Billy Hart, and the idea of him sitting in with Les was only mooted the day before.) You can hear…

The name of Michael Cuscuna should be very familiar to album collectors, especially those who read the small-print credits. When I first interviewed him in 1985, he estimated he’d been involved with some 600 releases already, a figure that was rapidly dwarfed. His reputation was such that, the following year, Courtney Pine requested Michael as producer of his debut album. Born and raised in Connecticut, he caught the jazz bug early, and by his mid-teens was hearing top-drawer bands in New York City. Having first been fascinated by the drums, Michael then studied saxophone, and even played a gig with a ‘businessman’s-bounce’ danceband, before concentrating on listening to records. In his early 20s he landed jobs playing progressive rock on a couple of radio stations - one of which led…

Giant Beauty Fonstret 9-13 (5CD) EDITOR’S CHOICE Pat Thomas (p), Seymour Wright (as), Joel Grip (b) and Antonin Gerbal (d). Rec. 2022 Last month (ahmed) played a four-day residency at Cafe OTO in London that had a truly rapturous finale, and for those who missed it this 5-CD box set of a residency at the Festival For Other Music in Stockholm two years ago offers adequate compensation. Named after the Sudanese-American bassist-oudist-composer Ahmed Abdul-Malik, the quartet has achieved the enviable feat of growing from inside the music of its subject, absorbing its character and synergizing with the strong personalities of the band-members, so that pianist Pat Thomas, bassist Joel Grip, drummer Antonin Gerbal and alto saxophonist Seymour Wright push the source material to new musical planes that are nonetheless framed…

Moon Bridge Eight Islands Records EIRD-8008 (CD, DL) EDITOR’S CHOICE Joonas Haavisto (p, el p) and Kestutis Vaiginis (ss, ts). Rec. October 2022 One of Finland’s most exciting jazz talents, Joonas Haavisto is perhaps best-known as a collaborator with the likes of singer-composer Susanna Aleksandra (2021’s superb The Siren) and guitarist Jukka Tolonen, as well as work with his own Trio; Lithuanian Kestutis Vaiginis, meanwhile, has led his own groups and has worked with a diverse range of musicians, including Russian bassist Boris Koslov and Polish trumpeter Piotr Schmidt. This talented pair’s musical history goes back to 2006, when they met in Lithuania at the Jazz Improvizacija (a major piano competition, which Joonas won that year). Ever since, they have rehearsed and performed together, establishing a strong musical connection –…

Ron Miles Old Main Chapel Blue Note 5894818 (CD, DL) EDITOR’S CHOICE Ron Miles (t), Bill Frisell (g) and Brian Blade (d). Rec. 21 September 2011 It’s hard to process that Ron Miles is no longer with us. In our present world of disharmony, his generous soul is much needed. Miles, Blade and Frisell are kindred spirits: each great listeners, each wear their virtuosity lightly, each creates more space than they fill. And it’s in those spaces between that the magic distils. And what magic: ‘Mr Kevin’ is gentle yet iron-clad strong; this is a righteous conversation, at once as respectful as it is scurrilously witty. This is sit down music, not just because the trio for all different reasons play sat down, but because this is music that demands…

Anthony D’Alessandro Searchin’ Self-release A suave and likeable debut set from Canadian pianist D’Alessandro, whose compositions and playing are melodic, upbeat and hard-swinging. Fellow Canucks Neil Swainson (bass), Ernesto Cervini (drums), Benny Barnack (trumpet) and Caity Gyorgy (vocals) join in the fun. (KW) Audun Automat Uflaks AMP Music This Norwegian quintet’s third album draws parallels between the unpredictable nature of jazz and the odd twists and turns of life. Musically as well as conceptually, it works well, defying expectations and marrying harmony with discord. (KW) Bee Reiki Bee Raiki Discus Music Violinist/drummer Faradena Afifi and guitarist/electronicist Paul Khimasia Morgan team up with the great pianist Steve Beresford on this set of playful yet edgy improv on which voices, strings, keys and electronics combine to paint a sound picture of unexpected…

Shelly Manne & His Men Live at the Blackhawk Vol. 1 Contemporary/Craft Recordings CR00601 (LP, DL) RECOMMENDED Shelly Manne (d), Joe Gordon (t), Richie Kamunca (ts), Victor Feldman (p) and Monty Budwig (b). Rec. 24 and 29 September 1959 Excellent jazz from the ongoing Contemporary/Craft reissue series, here highlighting one of the leading figures of West Coast jazz, drummer Shelly Manne, with a trumpet/tenor saxophone lineup more associated with the East Coast of the period. The difference here is the laid-back, comfortably in-the-pocket jazz touch of five men on the bandstand playing as much for themselves as the Blackhawk audience. Contemporary originally released fourvolumes taken from Manne’s September live date (subsequently released on CD byAmerican Jazz Classics as a box set) claiming it was the entirety of the material recorded,…

Seagull S6 Original acoustic guitar The Seagull S6 first appeared in 1982 and became a popular choice for many celebrated artists, who could be seen playing the instrument with its distinctive’straight pull’ (almost!) headstock. Made by Godin in Canada, it was seen as the flagship of the Seagull line and has now been in continuous production (with a few upgrades) for more than 40 years. Modelled on the large bodied Dreadnought, the S6 comes with a pressure treated solid cedar top, a silver leaf maple neck and wild cherry back and sides. The rosewood fretboard with its spacious 45.72mm nut carries 21 medium frets and has large MOP position markers. There are six individual nickel plated encased tuners and a nicely fluted ‘wingtip’ bridge. Black binding with a white tramline,…

1 Banned in New York by Greg Osby (1998) “I consider Greg as my main mentor who really broadened my approach to improvisation and composition. Greg always thinks outside the box and has a unique style which I love. The energy of this live album is amazing, the group is on fire, the compositions are killing and Greg sounds as if he came from another world. His lines, his sound and his feel are a big inspiration.” 2 Symphony of Psalms by Igor Stravinsky/The CBS Symphony Orchestra (1973) “Whenever I’m in a composing phase, this legendary work is always a source of great inspiration. It’s timeless and ground-breaking. I always feel very small when I am listening to this work. It makes me cry, shiver and feel free; Stravinsky used…

Congratulations on the new show – I’ve really enjoyed all the episodes I’ve listened to so far. You’re an experienced broadcaster, but it must be slightly daunting doing a show five nights a week? Thankfully, I’m not completely alone, there’s a team of producers with their ears to these jazz streets. It’s a hefty number of shows, but I’m really grateful that we’ve got a such a big platform. We’re not constrained by having to cram all the diversity and range of the jazz scene into the usual tiny slot. I like the fact that you’ve been looking both backward and forwards in terms of the music you’re playing – do you feel this is an opportunity to educate your audience to some of the less obvious corners of the…

Nine years younger than his saxophonist brother Jimmy Heath, and 12 years younger than his other sibling, bassist Percy, Philadelphia-born drummer Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath had every bit as distinguished a career as his brothers. Growing up in his hometown, he was playing with Bobby Timmons, John Coltrane and Shirley Scott before he was into his twenties. He worked with trumpeter and composer Cal Massey’s band there (Cal had previously worked with Jimmy Heath) and Tootie told me that: “I grew up listening to Jimmy. Percy’d gone to New York by the time I got into music, but Jimmy was a strong influence and my main teacher – not as a drummer – but as a musician.” He followed his brothers to New York in 1957, and, aged 22, his first…

NEW REGENCY ORCHESTRA LAUNCH NEW ALBUM AT SCALA The barnstorming 18-Piece Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble, the New Regency Orchestra (NRO), will headline Scala in King’s Cross on Thursday 27 June to launch their eponymous debut album. Released on 14 June via Mr Bongo the NRO’s LP puts classic Latin jazz through a 21st century London filter, drawing on the sounds of 1950s René Hernandez and Tito Puente, through to the 1970s salsa of Rafael Labasta and Orlando Marin, and the latinised bebop of legends such as Dizzy Gillespie and Chico O’Farrill. The band includes a talent packed line-up of leading UK jazz musicians (such as saxophonist George Crowley and trombonist Rosie Turton) alongside a troupe of latin drummers, percussionists and dancers.  For more info visit www.scala.co.uk/events/new-regency-orchestra/ OGUN TO REISSUE LIVE GEMS…

Discerning aficionados of the UK scene will have noticed the arrival hipper venues and festival stages. Maddy Coombs is still in her early twenties, but has already appeared leading her own bands at We Out Here Festival, The Vortex, and a variety of similarly select London venues - proof that peers and tastemakers on the scene are taking notice. However there’s scant trace of the heavy socials presence that is expected from Gen Z artists – a deliberate policy on Maddy’s part, as she tells me when we meet over the ubiquitous Zoom call from her South London digs. “I tried doing the Instagram thing for a bit but it wasn’t very fulfilling, musically. For me jazz is a community music – that’s when it’s most fulfilling, playing with people…

Black Art Jazz Collective Truth to Power High Note Records HN 7353 (CD, DL) Wayne Escoffery (ts), Jeremy Pelt, Josh Evans, Wallace Roney Jnr. (tpt), James Burton III (tb), Xavier Davis, Victor Gould (p), Vincente Archer, Rashaan Carter (b), Johnathan Blake and Mark Whitfield Jnr (d). Rec. May 2023 The Black Art Jazz Collective mark their 10th anniversary with a stirring collection of originals recorded by two different line-ups over two days. Lean, muscular arrangements, a sonorous front line and vibrant rhythms confirm Jazz Messenger’s roots. Strong personalities and drummers Johnathan Blake and Mark Whitfield deliver the contemporary twist. ‘Truth to Power’ finds trumpeters Jeremy Pelt, Josh Evans and the impressive Wallace Roney Jnr in an honours-even trumpet joust; written by tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, it marks Pelt’s departure, and…

Alina Bzhezhinska and Tony Kofi Altera Vita BBE BBE779ACD/LP (CD, LP, DL) Alina Bzhezhinska (hp, perc), Tony Kofi (ts, perc, kalimba) and Muriel Grossman (tanpura). Rec. 29-30 August 2023 Three rings on a singing bowl, and Altera Vita unfurls slowly, languorously, into being, a sonic lotus flower in a spiritual jazz garden planted by the likes of Pharoah Sanders and Alice and John Coltrane. This spare, superb duo album might have come from on high, such is its soul-cleansing timeliness, the way it transfixes the listener across six tracks whose intentions, spelled out after opener 'Tabula Rasa: Blank Slate', are titled like offerings ('Anima: Breathe'; 'Audite Me: Hear Me'). The symbiosis between harpist Bzhezhinska and tenor king Kofi has long been clear to all who've experienced their previous collaborations, most…

Find Your Flame Strut STRUT346 (CD, LP, DL) Finn Booth (d), Luke Wynter (b), Tom Excell (g), Lewis Moody (ky), Jonny Enser (t), Nick Richards (as), Denis Scully (ts), Hannah Mae (b), Aziza Jaye (v) plus guests. Rec. 2023 Nile Rodgers is here, and Afrobeat scion Seun Kuti. Accra-born seer KOG brings his highlife stylings; Malian diva Mamani Keita sees us out with her high, husky Bamana-language lyrics. The calibre of such guests is testament to the clout and prestige of nine-piece powerhouse Nubiyan Twist, whose fourth album this is, as it is that of producer/guitarist Tom Excell, who showcases the band’s inventiveness, range, and festival-hewn tightness with aplomb. Whatever the genre - soul or jazz, hip hop or grime - the band maintain their groove and social conscience, as…

Landmark Recording Excellent Good Average Disappointing Cannonball Adderley Quintet Live in Montreal 1975 Liberation Hall LIB-5132/5199 (CD, LP, DL)) Cannonball Adderley (as, ss), Nat Adderley (cnt), Michael Wolff (p, ky), Walter Booker (b) and Roy McCurdy (d, perc). Rec. 3 May 1975 There’s been a real flurry of late-period Adderley Quintet ‘live’ discoveries recently; this Montreal club recording follows hard on our recent reviews of the quintet’s earlier concerts in Paris and Bordeaux. Here we’re nearly three years on from the Paris date and it’s the last-but-one night of the band’s six-night engagement at Montreal’s Concert Room: two months before Cannonball’s debilitating stroke and his subsequent death on 8 August that same year. The 22-year-old Wolff, lately arrived as the replacement for Hal Galper, is given his say on Ron…

Various Artists Echoes Of Spain él/Cherry Red ACME3CD371 (3 CD) RECOMMENDED Artists include: Miles Davis, Gil Evans, John Coltrane, Django Reinhardt, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Manuel De Falla, Joaquín Rodrigo, Issac Albéniz, Manuel Ponce, Federico Torroba, Sabicas, Léo Delibes, Enrique Granados, Andrés Segovia and others. Rec. 1939–62 The subtitle – From Segovia and Sabicas to Miles Davis and John Coltrane – explains the thinking behind this good-value boxette rather nicely. Virtually every reader will have the landmark Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaborations in their collection. All of Sketches of Spain and chunks of Miles Ahead (plus’Flamenco Sketches’ from Kind of Blue) are included here; little more needs to be said about those, other than that these recordings bought the colours of orchestral music (not just Spanish) to jazz in a way…

Classical BROUGHT TO YOU BY Timo Andres The Blind Banister Nonesuch (7559 78999-0 • 49’) Unsurprisingly, the approach one hears in Timo Andres’s piano-playing also comes through in his own music. Composed in 2015, The Blind Banister draws on Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, exploring what Andres has called a stylistic ‘fault line’ between the late classical style of the concerto and the more ‘modern’-sounding cadenza incorporated by Beethoven some 20 years later. The first movement starts innocently enough with a series of stammering, staircase-like suspensions announced sotto voce on solo piano. The stylistic fault lines become more pronounced as the music unfolds, however, with Andres’ music exposing ever deeper and wider stylistic cracks. Caught in a perpetual cycle of tension and release, these harmonic suspensions eventually break free towards the…

BBC RADIO 2 88-91 FM and DAB Jamie Cullum show (Tues, 9pm) BBC RADIO 3 90-93 FM and DAB 'Round Midnight (Mon-Fri 11.30pm) Jazz Record Requests (Sun, 4pm) BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC DAB Gilles Peterson, Sat 3pm JAZZ FM DAB, Sky, Alexa, smartphone, tablet and online at jazzfm.com (Mon – Fri) 6am-6.30am Business Breakfast, 6.30am-10am Jazz FM Breakfast with Nigel Williams, 10am-2pm Midmornings with Danielle Perry, 2pm-6pm Afternoon drive with Simon Philips, 6pm-7pm Jazz FM’s Greatest with Mark Walker, 7pm-9pm Dinner Jazz with Mark Walker. (Mon) 9pm-10pm The Performance Series with Ruth Fisher, 10pm-Midnight Late Night China Moses. (Tues) 9pm-10pm Jazz Travels with Sarah Ward, 10pm-Midnight Late Night China Moses. (Weds). 9pm-10pm The Big Easy with Lil’ Koko. 10pm-Midnight Late Night China Moses. (Thurs) 9pm-10pm True Brit with Helen Mayhew.…