I hope you’ve been enjoying this regular weekly update about the music played on Jazz On The Beach (and bi-weekly on Blues Beach), and listening to the shows live on Deal Radio or catching up via Mixcloud. If you could hit the like button once in a while it helps spread the word and would be greatly appreciated.
There are a couple of new recordings taken from radio broadcasts, starting with an Al Jarreau club date recorded by WHFS Radio in Washington DC that’s being released for Record Store Day entitled Wow! Live at the Childe Harold 1976 (Resonance, 29th November). The track chosen for this week’s playlist is Rainbow in Your Eyes, the Leon Russell song that Jarreau had recorded earlier that year on his second album Glow. He performs it here with his trio of pianist Tom Canning, bassist Ben Atkins and drummer Tom Drake, and this live version is earthier, even downright funkier and Jarreau is just flying…it’s a sensational performance.
The second radio session making its first appearance is the Gerry Mulligan Quartet’s Spring in Stockholm: Live at Konserthuset, 1959 (New Land Records, 12th October). The show was recorded by Swedish National Radio on 19th May and as with all New Land vinyl, it’s beautifully presented. The track selected is a terrific version of Just in Time, still a new song (it only made its debut three years earlier in the show Bells Are Ringing), and alongside Mulligan on baritone saxophone are trumpeter Art Farmer, double bassist Bill Crow and drummer Dave Bailey - the Night Lights album lineup without Bob Brookmeyer and Jim Hall.
I can’t imagine how I lived without this record for so long…that’s how I feel about saxophonist Dewey Redman’s Boody from the album The Ear Of The Behearer (Impulse!, 1973), described in the liner notes by Robert Palmer (not that one) as ‘a blues with its Texas roots showing’. It’s a roaring twelve minutes held together by double bassist Sirone with drummer Eddie Moore, while trumpeter Ted Daniel and Redman play the blues. It hit me the same way Henry Threadgill’s version of Olu Dara’s I Can't Wait Till I Get Home first did (Easily Slip Into Another World, RCA Novus, 1987), and I’ll play that again soon.
It’s preceded by guitarist Peter Bernstein’s sparky Ditty for Dewey from the excellent Better Angels album (Smoke Sessions Records, September 27th), with the quite amazing line up of pianist Brad Mehldau, double bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Al Foster. However, the Dewey in question isn’t Redman, but one of Bernstein and wife Erin Quinn Purcell’s two sons.
Also on the playlist are two new singles that both come in at under two minutes, from the Charles Owens Trio at 1:49 and the Moses Yoofee Trio at 1:39. Tenor saxophonist Owens (a big JOTB favourite), with double bassist Cameron Ralston and drummer Kofi Shepsu play FJD, (Eddie Harris’ Freedom Jazz Dance) taken from their upcoming album The Music Tells Us (La Reserve, 6th December). It’s short but sweet and probably a warm up or just a bit of fun in the studio, but here’s the video which puts the performance in a better perspective. Also, Owen’s artwork by Jessica Camilli is terrific.
The Moses Yoofee Trio - Berlin based pianist Yoofee, drummer Noah Fürbringer and double bassist Roman Klobe-Barangă - play WHIP.wav from their album MYT (Leiter, 7th February 2025). The early fade suggests this is just a taster for social media and that the whole thing will be available later. My first reaction was not to play this, although I did like what little there is of it, but it works back to back with the Charles Owens track.
I’m taking a short break, in the meantime there will be music-only playlists for next week’s Jazz On The Beach and Blues Beach shows on Deal Radio and Mixcloud.
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