Jazz On The Beach 132: Nucleus and Leon Thomas, Billy Cobham, Blues Beach 49, R.L. Burnside, Robert Wilkins
Listen to more jazz music and play the blues!
In June 1970 the American vocalist Leon Thomas came to London to play a two week residency at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. Pete King, the club’s manager, enlisted the British jazz-rock pioneers Nucleus (whom he also managed) to be Thomas’ backing band, and as both were due to perform at the Montreux Jazz festival later that month they would play with him there too.
Nucleus had only been formed the year before and had just released their debut album Elastic Rock (Vertigo, 1970), a game changer in British jazz rock fusion. They were led by trumpeter Ian Carr and their line up at that time was pianist and oboist Karl Jenkins, saxophonist and flautist Brian Smith, guitarist Chris Spedding, bassist Jeff Clyne and drummer John Marshall. It was an excellent match up and as well as playing their own repertoire each night, Nucleus put Thomas’ songs and voice in a very different setting from the likes of Pharoah Sanders, James Spaulding, Lonnie Liston Smith, Cecil McBee and Roy Haynes who had played on his recent album Spirits Known And Unknown (Flying Dutchman, 1970).
By the time they played at Montreux on June 20th they were absolutely flying, and on this week’s Jazz on The Beach there’s Thomas’ Echoes taken from the Montreux set that was only officially released 44 years later as Nucleus With Leon Thomas: Live 1970 (Gearbox, 2014).
I was lucky enough to get to know Ian Carr in the late ‘90s As well as a glittering career as a musician he was also an eminent jazz writer with biographies of Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett, and a an associate professor at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He once told me that ‘Nucleus had been a major influence on Miles going electric’ and I wouldn't doubt him for a moment. A very special man and one of our greatest musicians.
Among the new releases this week is a wonderful duo project from trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Amina Claudine Myers entitled Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens (Red Hook Records, May 10th). The titles are all inspired by the natural beauty of New York City’s Central Park and include Conservatory Gardens, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, Albert Ayler: a meditation in light and Imagine: a mosaic for John Lennon. For this week’s show I’ve chosen the beautiful Central Park At Sunset, but plan to play more over the coming weeks from this exquisite album. Another trumpeter is Dave Douglas, whose rocking take on Billy Strayhorn’s Take The A Train from his new album Gifts (Greenleaf Music, April 12th) also features the prolific tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and guitarist Rafiq Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang from post-rock trio Son Lux.
This week’s jazz rock fusion milestone is drummer Billy Cobham’s Quadrant 4 from Spectrum (Atlantic, 1973), that features screaming minimoog and electric piano from his Mahavishnu Orchestra bandmate Jan Hammer, electric bass from Lee Sklar and hard rocking guitar with daredevil whammy bar and Echoflex exploits from Tommy Bolin. The story goes that when Jeff Beck heard this music a light bulb went off and effectively ended the Beck Bogert and Appice hard rock boogie trio. A good thing too, the new direction certainly gave Beck his mojo back.
And finally, there’s 20 year old tenor saxophonist Barney Willen’s Brainstorm from his debut album Barney Willen Quintet (Guide de Jazz, 1957) that’s just been reissued by French label Sam Records in original glorious mono, and singer Jo Harrop’s fine version of Leonard Cohen’s Travelling Light, the second (or third?) track we’ve played from her upcoming The Path Of A Tear (Lateralise, June 7th) that was produced by Larry Klein. As my friend Darrel would say, she’s going to be big!
Here’s the complete Jazz On The Beach playlist, just click the link below to listen
Blues Beach is back this week (it’s biweekly) and on the playlist is Robert Wilkins’ That’s No Way To Get Along (Brunswick, 1930) that was covered by the Rolling Stones on Beggars Banquet (Decca, 1968) under the title Prodigal Son. Wilkins had recorded a gospel version with the new name after he had turned away from the Devil’s music in 1935 and become a minister. By all accounts he was paid royalties (far too many bluesmen were not) and died in 1987 at 91 years old.
Speaking of royalties, there’s R.L. Burnside’s Someday Baby from A Bothered Mind (Fat Possum, 2004). Burnside was ailing and couldn’t play guitar, so the producers used an old guitar track, overdubbed new parts and remixed it adding Japanese rapper Guest Lyrics. When asked how he felt about making records like this, Burnside replied:
‘At first I didn't like them too much, then I saw how much money they were making and I got to liking them pretty well’.
Here’s the full Blues Beach playlist, just click the link below to listen:
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