Jazz On The Beach 114 & Blues Beach 40
Charles Owens, Lafayette Gilchrist, Blues Beach got Soul!
This week’s Jazz On The Beach playlist features something new from one of my favourite musicians, the tenor saxophonist Charles Owens. Confusingly there are two horn players by that name, but this Charles Owens (the younger one) lives, plays and teaches in Charlottesville, Virginia where he is committed to achieving musical excellence while spreading peace and joy to others. He has a top notch rhythm section, performing and recording for many years with the Butcher Brown engine room of drummer DJ Harrison (aka Devon Harris) and electric bassist Andrew Randazzo. The trio are together on the new album Here It Is (La Reserve) that was recorded in one ‘hit and quit it’ session on 14th March this year. The track I’ve chosen is a great version of David Caesar’s R&B Grammy-winning Best Part which is melodic, deeply grooving and typical of his inspired repertoire choices - he recorded a fabulous version of Jimi Hendrix’s If 6 Was 9 on his album 10 years that I wrote about for London Jazz News.
Andrew Randazzo provides much more that just basslines these days, he’s now switched to playing a new Hybrid guitar that allows him to simultaneously play bass lines, chords and melodies. Imagine a guitar with the bottom 3 strings like a bass and the top 3 strings like a guitar, each going into dedicated bass and guitar amplifiers. It’s a great sound and Randazzo plays it brilliantly, giving Owens all the melodic support he needs.
This week’s show opens with John Coltrane’s Blue Train (Blue Train, Blue Note 1958), the masterpiece which would regularly open Gearbox Records’ Jazz Kissaten events at their mastering studio in King’s Cross. Founder/producer Darrel Sheinman would play an incredibly clean copy on the EMT broadcast turntable through Audio Note valve amps and loudspeakers, and it never sounded anything short of breathtaking. Unfortunately internet radio can never get close to the sound quality of such a high end system, but this iconic recording somehow sounds as powerful and emotive as ever whatever you hear it on. It’s Blue Note and Rudy van Gelder at their very best, with wonderful playing by Coltrane, trumpeter Lee Morgan, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Kenny Drew, double bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones.
I’ve only just cottoned on to pianist/composer Lafayette Gilchrist’s latest album Undaunted (Morpheus Records) which was released digitally last summer with the vinyl arriving last month. In the past he’s toured extensively with saxophonist David Murray and his music has been featured on a number of TV soundtracks including The Wire, Treme and The Deuce. I’ve selected the beautifully written and solidly grooving title track for this week’s show with its concise and to the point solos from Gilchrist, tenor saxophonist Brian Settles and trombonist Christian Hizon, alongside double bassist Herman Burney, drummer Eric Kennedy and percussionist Kevin Pinder.
There’s new music from vibraphonist Joel Ross with nublues from his upcoming album of the same name (Blue Note February), the ebullient Cyrille Aimée has teamed up with New York multi-instrumentalist & producer Jake Sherman for a single Beautiful Way and an upcoming album À Fleur de Peau (Whirlwind Recordings March), there’s the Swiss trio divr with As Of Now from their album Is This Water (WeJazz February), and as it’s Christmas, here’s Samara Joy’s fabulous version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas from A Joyful Holiday (Verve) with the incredible Pasquale Grasso on guitar.
Many thanks to fellow Substacker Brian McCrory for his excellent piece on Japanese pianist Hideaki Hori which nudged me to play Spinning from the album Horizon (BQ Records 2003). It’s a great quartet track with some wild tenor playing from Hideki Kawamura, read Brian’s take on this record below.
There’s the most laid back of piano trio tracks imaginable from The Count Basie Trio with Blues In The Alley from For The First Time (Pablo 1974) with double bassist Ray Brown and drummer Louie Bellson. And speaking of great drummers, our good friend Doug Sides features alongside tenor saxophonist Curtis Amy and trumpeter Dupree Bolton on A Shade Of Brown from Katanga! (Pacific Jazz 1963) a classic that also features pianist Jack Wilson and double bassist Victor Gaskin.
This week’s Blues Beach show gets a large helping of soul - alongside John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal and B.B. King there’s New Orleans R&B from Lee Dorsey, Muscle Shoals soul from Etta James, Clarence Carter, Percy Sledge, Eddie Hinton and Aretha Franklin (actually N.Y.C. but most of the players came up from the Shoals).
We’re up to our necks in the deep river with Clarence Fountain and The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, driving into the purple valley with Ry Cooder and finding love with Wilson Pickett and the Falcons featuring Robert Ward on guitar. Incidentally, the Falcons later became the Ohio Players but that’s for another show.
Radio Times
Listen live to Jazz On The Beach every Wednesday from 10.00pm - midnight UK time and Blues Beach every other Thursday from 6.00pm - 7.00pm UK time via the internet on DealRadio.co.uk or on the TuneIn Radio app.
Both shows are broadcast live from the Deal Radio Studio at 69a High Street, Deal, Kent CT14 6EH.
Alternatively, just ask your smart device to ‘Play Deal Radio’.
Thank you Adam! It's great that Hori's album and Japanese jazz music is getting the attention, and I really appreciate you sharing my article. Cheers!