Jazz On The Beach 142 & Blues Beach 54
Jazz On The Beach 142 & Blues Beach 54
Harold Alexander, Magic Sam, Something Else featuring Vincent Herring, Jesse Fuller and radio playlists
Summer finally arrived in Deal a few days ago, so appropriately enough, on this week’s playlist is saxophonist and flautist Harold Alexander’s title track from Sunshine Man (Flying Dutchman, 1971), a glorious funky groove featuring Alexander playing soprano saxophone with electric pianist Neal Creque, Richard Davis on electric bass, Richard Landrum playing conga and drummer Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie.
There’s not much out there about Alexander, he’d previously played with organist Big John Patton and the Elvin Jones Trio before making two other albums as leader: Are You Ready? (Flying Dutchman, 1972) which was recorded live at the Montreux Festival and Raw Root (Atlantic, 1974). Not long after he disappeared from the scene and is quoted as saying:
“They didn't kill my spirit, but they killed my desire to share. Ain't that cold? But you keep growing. You keep practicing, you keep getting better...I'm just not gonna share it. Most people don't know what happened to me. I guess they think I'm gone”.
If anyone knows more about Harold Alexander, please pass it on.
New releases this week include two drummer-led projects - there’s Charles Goold with a great version of Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol’s Caravan from Triptych Lespri (La Reserve, June 28th) that mixes up Haitian rhythms with swing jazz, and Nasheet Waits’ Snake Stance from New York Love Letter (Bitter Sweet) (Giant Step Arts, June 28th), a Jason Moran tune that Waits first recorded in 2008.
There’s also the intriguing Clouding from Superposition’s second album II (We Jazz, July 19th) a Helsinki quartet that includes saxophonist Linda Fredriksson (their Juniper album is a big favourite), and terrific West Coast alto saxophonist Devin Daniels with the explosive title track from LesGo! (Sam First, June 2nd) as well as the Bill Charlap Trio’s version of Kenny Barron’s And Then Again from the album of the same title (Blue Note, August 16th) recorded live at the Village Vanguard.
Another new release highlight is a sensational version of Horace Silver’s Filthy McNasty on Soul Jazz (Smoke Sessions, June 14th) by alto saxophonist Vincent Herring’s all star band Something Else! featuring trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, guitarist Paul Bollenback, pianist David Kikoski, double bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Otis Brown III. Fabulous playing and great fun, here’s a nice promo clip.
There was plenty of feedback regarding saxophonist John Klemmer’s out there version of Jimi Hendrix’s Third Stone From The Sun from last week’s show. To balance things up there’s Free Fall Lover from Touch (ABC, 1975) a hugely successful album that’s since been acknowledged as one of the first smooth jazz recordings. But if you listen, I’m sure you’ll agree it’s much, much better than that.
From the mid-twentieth century there’s pianist Mal Waldron’s signature tune, the title track from Left Alone (Bethlehem, 1959) that features beautiful playing from alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. It perfectly sets up organist Jimmy Smith’s deeply grooving Red Top from Prayer Meetin’ (Blue Note, 1964) featuring tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.
And finally, what could be finer than Miles Davis’ version of Monk’s Straight, No Chaser from Milestones (Columbia, 1958) with saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, double bassist Paul Chamber and drummer Philly Joe Jones.
Here’s the full playlist, as always, just click the link below to enjoy.
Blues Beach
On this week’s Blues Beach playlist there’s another hour of great blues including Magic Sam’s I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie), Sonny Boy Williamson II’s One Way Out, Howlin’ Wolf’s I Ain’t Superstitious, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s The Sky Is Crying, Jimmy Reed’s My First Plea and Muddy Waters’ The Same Thing.
There’s Jesse Fuller’s first recorded version of his celebrated San Francisco Bay Blues from the 10” Working On The Railroad (World Song, 1955), and John Littlejohn’s remake of his 1966 single Kitty O as Kiddeo on John Littlejohn’s All Stars (Arhoolie 1968), while bringing us up to date there’s a sensational new release from Toronzo Cannon with Had To Go Through It To Get To It.
Here’s the whole Blues Beach playlist, just click the link below and play the blues!
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 6 Park Avenue Coffeehouse & Bar, Deal and Wellingtons Coffeehouse & Bistro, Dover.
If you’ve just visiting (nice to see you!) or perhaps forgot why you subscribed in the first place, here’s a reminder of what this newsletter is trying to achieve:
Distribute the playlists and playback links for my two radio shows avoiding social media platforms
Make those shows more enjoyable by offering background on the music played
Share music and whatever knowledge I have
Appreciate and grow the listener community
You can get back to me by replying to this post or at jazzonthebeach@icloud.com