Jazz On The Beach 136: Five Corners Quintet, Larry Carlton, Blues Beach 51, Staples. Jr Singers
Jazz On The Beach 136: Five Corners Quintet, Larry Carlton, Blues Beach 51, Staples. Jr Singers
Jazz and blues radio shows and playlists
I was thrilled to find a mint vinyl copy of The Five Corners Quintet’s hard to find Chasin’ The Jazz Gone By (Ricky-Tick Records, 2005) at Deal Radio’s record store last week, so their signature tune Trading Eights is the opening track of this week’s Jazz On The Beach playlist.
The album was conceived as ‘classic modernist jazz tailored for the dance floor’ by musician/producer Tuomas Kallio (later founder of Flow Festival). He brought together the most exciting young Finnish jazz musicians including tenor saxophonist Timo Lassy, trumpeter Jukka Eskola and drummer Teppo Mäkynen as well as guest vocalist Mark Murphy for three of the twelve tracks, and borrowed the name from the Five Corners road junction in Southern Helsinki that was the epicentre of the city’s urban culture.
Trading Eights features a line up of tenor saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen, pianist Kim Rantala, bassist Tapani Nevalainen, percussionist Pekka Jaclin as well as the forementioned Eskola and Mäkynen, and sounds just great.
Among the new releases this week is MoonDial from Pat Metheny who’s playing solo baritone guitar, alto saxophonist Nicole McCabe’s Jeff Parker produced Force Of Good and pianist Kenny Barron’s quintet rerecording of his composition Innocence.
Also, Tel Aviv/Jaffa’s Sandman Project with the afrobeaty Where Do You Go, and the peaceful Conservatory Gardens from Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lakes and Gardens by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Amina Claudine Myers that’s a highlight of the year so far.
The jazz rock fusion milestone is a smoother animal altogether this week with Larry Carlton’s Point It Up from Larry Carlton (Warner Bros, 1978), his third album as a leader and his first since breaking through as the top studio guitarist of the day. By this point ‘Mr 335’ had spent a couple of years in The Crusaders, played the iconic solo on Steely Dan’s Kid Charlemagne and literally hundreds more for everybody from Joni Mitchell to Quincy Jones.
Point It Up was recorded at Carlton’s home studio with keyboardist Greg Mathieson, bassist Abraham Laboriel, drummer Jeff Porcaro and percussionist Paulinho da Costa, and his incredible chops and trademark tone from a Gibson 335 through a Fender Deluxe still sound just as spectacular. When this first came out very guitar player I knew was blown away and we all tried to figure out how to play it, with some very mixed results.
So sad to hear of the passing of the great alto saxophonist David Sanborn last Sunday. I’ve been a fan since his Paul Butterfield Blues Band days and there are so many tracks I could have chosen - the Black Light/Blue Night/Flight trio from Taking Off was my first thought. But I finally decided on Short Visit by Gil Evans from Priestess (Antilles, 1983) that features a phenomenal Sanborn performance recorded live at New York’s St George’s Church in 1977. I first heard this late one night in a convenience store on Fulham Road, and stood in the aisle under a speaker for a full 12 minutes waiting to find out just what this incredible and powerful music was.
Blues Beach 51
On this week’s Blues Beach among some great blues records from artists like Willie Mabon, Jimmy Reed and Robert Jr Lockwood, there’s a wonderful gospel track from the Staples Jr. Singers entitled Lost In A World Of Sin, which comes from their new album Searching (Luaka Bop, June 14th). Edward Brown, R.C. Brown, and their little sister Annie Brown Caldwell (plus the new generation of R.C.’s son Gary, his grandson Jaylin Brown and Edward’s son Troy) recorded the album over the course of two evenings in the Message Center church in West Point, Mississippi. It comes after the success of their recently reissued 1975 album When Do We Get Paid which has really opened things up for them, with four European tours with another one this summer.
The Browns are no relation to The Staple Singers, but the story goes that when they used to play every weekend all over the Bible Belt, audiences would tell them ‘y’all sound like the Staple Singers, y’all should call yourselves the little Staple Jr. Singers!’ So they did - and why not?
Listen Live
You can listen live to Jazz On The Beach every Wednesday evening from 10.00pm - midnight* and to Blues Beach every other Thursday from 6.00pm - 7.00pm* on DealRadio.co.uk or via the TuneIn Radio app. (*UK time)
Or you can ask your smart device to ‘Play Deal Radio’.
Both shows are broadcast live from the Deal Radio Studio at 69a High Street, Deal, Kent CT14 6EH, a stone’s throw from the beach.
Jazz On the Beach and Blues Beach radio shows are sponsored by our good friends at Wellingtons with two fine locations: Welly’s Coffeehouse and Bar, 6 Park Avenue, Deal and Wellingtons Coffeehouse and Bistro, 9 High Street, Dover.
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