Jazz On The Beach 153
Herbie Hancock, Terumasa Hino, Roy Hargrove & Wayne Escoffery
It’s amazing to think that Herbie Hancock’s Thrust (Columbia) turned fifty years old on September 6th, it still sounds as fresh and exciting as ever. On this week’s Jazz On The Beach playlist there’s Actual Proof featuring the Headhunters - saxophonist/flautist/clarinettist Bennie Maupin, electric bassist Paul Jackson, new drummer Mike Clark (replacing Harvey Mason) and percussionist Bill Summers.
Hancock had written the song for the 1973 film The Spook Who Sat By The Door (the song’s original title), and it had been recorded but not used on Head Hunters (Columbia, 1973) with Mason, but re-recorded in one killer take to allow Clark to play on the whole album.
Here’s a live version of Actual Proof from Flood recorded in Tokyo, 1975.
Also this week, the title track from Terumasa Hino’s Hip Seagull (Flying Disc, 1978), a 16 minute jazz funk epic by one of Japan’s finest trumpeters who was tap dancing before he started playing jazz. We get a lot of seagulls here in Deal and I’ve never come across one I’d describe as ‘hip’, but there’s no doubt this track certainly is.
It was produced by Kiyoshi Itoh in Tokyo and New York with a lineup of tenor saxophonist Kohsuke Mine, keyboard player Mikio Masuda, guitarist John Scofield, bassist Clint Houston, drummer Motohiko Hino and percussionist Mtume. Hino is 81 now and sadly had to cancel his recent live performances due to poor health, but fingers crossed he’ll be back playing soon.
Priorities is a glorious slice of Latin jazz from trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s Crisol and the first track released from the new album Grande-Terre (Verve, October 18th), put together from previously unreleased sessions in 1998 featuring some of the musicians who had played on the Grammy Award-winning Habana (Verve, 1997).
The players alongside Hargrove are trombonist Frank Lacy, alto saxophonist Herman Irby, tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwattz-Bart, pianist Larry Willis, drummer Willie Jones III, percussionists Miguel ‘Anga’ Diaz and Jose Luis ‘Changuita’ Quintana and vocalist Julio Marreto. Hargrove has been greatly missed since he died in 2018 at the age of 49, and this album will be released two days after what should have been his 55th birthday.
There are two exceptional piano trio tracks this week from Steven Feifke and the Bill Evans Trio. The first is Feifke’s version of Gershwin’s I’ve Got Rhythm from The Role Of The Rhythm Section Vol II (La Reserve, November) with double bassist Dan Chimielinski and drummer Bryan Carter who were also present on Vol 1. I played a track from Feifke’s Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra that he leads with trumpeter Bijon Watson a few weeks ago, and it’s good to hear his piano to the fore.
The second is Bill Evans’ beautiful version of Thelonious Monk’s ‘Round Midnight from Trio ‘65 (Verve, 1965), with drummer Larry Bunker and double bassist Chuck Israels. I finally got hold of the Acoustic Sounds vinyl reissue of this album and I’ve fallen in love with it all over again. Here’s a live version of the trio performing the song a year earlier in Copenhagen.
Two new releases from London based artists, starting with pianist and singer Ashley Henry’s positive desire to Take it Higher from Who We Are (naïve/Royal Raw Records, October 11th), with flautist James Alexander, bassist Alec Hewes, drummer Myle Manzanza and a soaring string arrangement by Matt Roberts that’s performed by Simmy Singh.
Trumpeter Jackson Mathod and composer/multi-instrumentalist Leif Maine make continue to make great music together from their studio located under a pub in Tulse Hill with the excellent Transformer from Volte-Face (Def Pressé, August 23rd), that also features drummer Jaega McKenna-Gordon. Incidentally, Maine plays guitar in the band Space Ghetto with Gearbox Records’ mastering engineer Caspar Sutton-Jones, here’s Sudokin which was released last spring.
Another Acoustic Sounds vinyl reissue I’ve been enjoying a great deal recently is the graceful Spirit Sensitive (India Navigation, 1979), by tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman. If you think Freeman can be a little too out there for your tastes, you’ll might well think again after hearing this beautiful album of ballads. One of the highlights on this week’s show is his wonderful interpretation of Thad Jones’ A Child is Born with pianist John Hicks, double bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Billy Hart.
And finally, the London born and US bred tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery channels deep feelings of solitude and loss through Harold Land’s Rapture from the album Alone (Smoke Sessions, August 30th), that also features pianist Gerald Clayton, double bassist Ron Carter and drummer Carl Allen. There’s real beauty in the sadness and the performances are spellbinding.
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Always enjoy the programme, but this week was better than most. Particularly enjoyed the Herbie Hancock and Bill Evan’s tracks. Interesting that Cecil McBee appeared on more than one track.