Jazz On The Beach 120: Astral Travelling, Mingus Takes Manhattan
Jazz On The Beach 120: Astral Travelling, Mingus Takes Manhattan
Blues Beach 43: Blues Funky Like Dat
This week’s Jazz On The Beach playlist features the pianist Lonnie Liston Smith’s Astral Travelling, an absolute favourite of mine and something we’ve heard on this show many times. It was the opening track on his Astral Travelling album which was produced by Bob Thiele for his Flying Dutchman label in 1973. Alongside Lonnie and his inspirational Fender Rhodes piano are the Cosmic Echoes: soprano saxophonist George Barron, guitarist Joe Beck, double bassist Cecil McBee, drummer David Lee Jr and percussionists Sonny Morgan and James Mutume (conga and percussion), Geeta Vashi (tamboura) and Badal Roy (tabla).
In the early noughties I went to see Lonnie play at the Jazz Cafe in Camden Town on one of his regular visits to Europe, and the following day we met for lunch after he’d spent the morning browsing for a new tweed cap in Jermyn Street. We talked about so much, from the people he’d played with after moving to New York in the early ‘60s like Betty Carter, Roland Kirk, Max Roach and Art Blakey, to just a few years later, playing with Pharoah Sanders, Leon Thomas, Gato Barbieri and Miles Davis, all leading to his breakthrough as a solo artist with Expansions (RCA/Flying Dutchman 1975). Then it was on to Marcus Miller, the Doctor Jazz records, his Loveland label, acoustic pianos versus electric - if only I’d had the foresight to take notes!
When we started talking about Astral Travelling which was his first album as a leader, Lonnie told me that the whole record was recorded in one overnight session in studio downtime following a gig in New York. The musicians packed up their gear, arrived at the studio in the early hours of April 24th 1973, set up quickly and started playing straight away, capturing four of the six tracks in no more than two takes. By the morning they were done, clearing out of the studio in time for the morning session to begin. Whether engineer Bob Simpson recorded multitrack and mixed the session later or if it was committed straight to stereo tape isn’t clear, but however it went down, it’s a great sounding record that captured a spirit and humanity that resonates 51 years later.
Lonnie also told me that he had suffered from glaucoma since he was young and had severely restricted vision. When he later discovered that treatment would restore his sight he was reluctant to try it, as he felt that being able to see clearly might dull his musical creativity and he’d lose his muse. Many years later he finally did go ahead and thankfully everything worked out fine.
There are a plethora of exciting new releases this week, starting with trumpeter Eddie Henderson’s Scorpio Rising from Witness To History (Smoke Sessions, February 3rd) which features a heavy line up of pianist George Cables, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, bassist Gerald Cannon and two drummers - Lenny White and Mike Clark. Bassist, guitarist and vocalist Kaya Thomas-Dyke, a key member of Alfa Mist’s Sekito label, releases Leave Me (Sekito, February 7th) with Alfa playing keyboards along with guitarist Jamie Leeming and drummer Richard Spaven.
There’s been a lot of interest in what bassist, vocalist and former Tomorrow’s Warrior alumnus Amy Gadiaga would come up with next, so here’s the just released Paloma Negra from the 5 track EP All Black Everything (jazz re:freshed, April 5th) that’s coming this spring. Also something new from guitarist Julian Lage with the hard driving 76 featuring some wild piano from Patrick Warren from his upcoming album Speak To Me (Blue Note, March 1st). Just released is keyboardist and vocalist Tara Lily’s mournful 6 Feet Down single (Tru Thoughts, January 19th), the South Londoner’s collaboration with US trumpeter Theo Croker and, as you probably guessed, a taster from her forthcoming album.
One of the albums of the year will surely be Charles Mingus’ Mingus Takes Manhattan, The Complete Birdland Dates: 1961-62, a beautifully put together and detailed 4 LP box set (New Land Records, January 5th). Here’s the riotous version of Duke Ellington’s Take The A Train that was recorded at the club on March 24th 1962, with Mingus playing double bass, trumpeter Richard Williams, alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin, pianist Jaki Byard and drummer Dannie Richmond. The sound quality may not exactly be pristine, but who cares when the music is this good.
There’s a little of everything on this week’s Blues Beach, that’s the way you’ve been telling me that you like it best. In one hour we go from Eric Bibb’s banjo driven Blues Funky Like Dat, Professor Longhair’s N’Awlins classic Tipitina and Sonny Boy Williamson II’s ‘50s Chicago style Don’t Start Me To Talkin’ to Nick Gravenites, Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield’s deeply grooving Swing With It from the Steelyard Blues OST, Jimi Hendrix’s Red House, Peter Green’s sublime Greeny and Hound Dog Taylor’s boisterous You Can't Sit Down.
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