Jazz On The Beach 157
Kokoroko, Roy Brooks, Samara Joy, Kamala's Dance
One of the many excellent new releases on this week’s Jazz On The Beach playlist comes from the excellent Kokoroko, with the warm afrobeat-fuelled Three Piece Suit from their upcoming four track EP Get The Message (Brownswood Recordings, November 1st). It’s a tribute to the Nigerian immigrant experience with vocalist Azekel guesting with the band led by trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey with trombonist Anoushka Nanguy, guitarist Tobi Adenaike-Johnson, saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael, percussionist Onome Edgeworth, drummer Ayo Salawu and bassist Duane Atherley. The artwork is fabulous too, I assume it’s by Sheila Maurice-Grey who’s a wonderful visual artist.
There’s a third track from Samara Joy’s third album Portrait (Verve, October 11th) which I reviewed for UK Jazz News. This week it’s Reincarnation of a Lovebird with its astonishing two minute a cappella introduction with lyrics by Joy to Charles Mingus’ composition. The ambitious band arrangement is by tenor saxophonist Kendric McCallister and the line up is completed by trumpeter Jason Charos, alto saxophonist David Mason, trombonist Donavan Austin, pianist Connor Rohrer, double bassist Felix Moseholm and drummer Evan Sherman. It’s incredible stuff, Joy is just sensational, and this is surely an album of the year contender.
Also, another track from Ineza, who performs a beautiful version of Abbey Lincoln’s Throw it Away from Women’s Words, Sisters’ Stories (Copasetic Recordings, November 1st), her collaboration with pianist and arranger Alex Webb that features the J.A.M. String Collective, bassist Charlie Pyne and drummer Katie Patterson.
Opening the show is the deeply swinging Hipnosis by the San Diego alto saxophonist Jarien Jamanila. It’s the first single from his upcoming album Jarien Plays Jamanila (no details yet), with pianist Joe Block, double bassist Felix Moseholm and drummer Dominick Branch. There’s also the Norwegian Tord Gustavsen Trio’s exquisite The Old Church from new album Seeing (ECM, October 4th) with pianist Gustavesen, double bassist Steinar Raknes and drummer Jarle Vespestad.
On the more experimental side, Flock brings together vibraphonist and percussionist Bex Burch, drummer and tabla player Sarathy Korwar, pianist Al MacSween, keyboardist Danalogue and saxophonist Tamar Osborn. Their Meet Your Shadow is great fun and comes from their second album, the imaginatively titled Flock II (Strut, October 25th).
From the North of England comes Plantfood’s Executive Decision to get up and dance from their debut album Carnivores (Bridge the Gap, October 4th), featuring saxophonists Joe van der Meulen and George Woolley, keyboardist Ruben Maric, bassist Woody Hayden, drummer Finn Hamilton and percussionist JJ Petrie.
Yet another of those out of the blue dept examples is this week’s appearance of pianist McCoy Tyner and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson’s Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs (Blue Note, November 22nd) that was recorded at the New York club in 1966. Here’s Isotope featuring the rhythm section of double bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Jack DeJohnette who had the tape ‘in his personal archive’, which is probably PR speak for ‘lost at the back of a closet’. Anyway, it’s great.
Also great and another that had possibly become lodged behind the sofa for forty years is drummer Roy Brooks’ phenomenal Understanding with trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist Carlos Garnett, pianist Harold Mabern and bassist Cecil McBee. It was recorded by the Left Bank Jazz Society at The Famous Ballroom, Baltimore in November 1970, and not released until 2021 (Real to Reel/La Reserve). Here’s the title track, at just over 20 minutes long it’s one of the shortest on the triple vinyl set.(The winner is Taurus Woman at 32:25). How the players kept up this level of intensity is incredible, but as Cecil McBee explained…
‘During that period, we were intent on such intense expression because of the social movements - civil rights, opposition to the war. The music was trying to express the excitement of arriving at social justice.’
And finally, there’s another track from the late trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s Crisol with Kamala’s Dance from the wonderful Grand-Terre (Verve, October 18th), that was recorded in 1998 and written for Hargrove’s daughter who was a young toddler at the time. Kamala is now a professionally trained dancer and a full-time performing artist - here she is completing the circle and dancing to her father’s song.
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