Jazz on the Beach 166
Martina DaSilva, Steps, Tony Williams, Dave Stryker, Ruby Rushton and Chocolate Babka
Last Saturday morning I drove up the coast to Margate to collect a freshly baked chocolate babka from The Good Egg (thank you, Alex). While mooching around record shops on ‘Planet Thanet’ I found a Japanese first pressing of Step By Step (Better Days, 1981), the terrific debut from Steps (later Steps Ahead). And following a deep clean it’s sounding relatively crackle and pop free.
For this week’s Jazz on the Beach radio playlist I’ve chosen the album’s opening track Uncle Bob, featuring the band’s amazing original line up of tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker, drummer Steve Gadd, double bassist Eddie Gomez, pianist Don Grolnick and vibraphonist Mike Mainieri.
But for more on chocolate babka, here’s Jerry and Elaine…
Among this week’s excellent new releases is guitarist Dave Stryker’s take on Isaac Hayes’ Theme From Shaft from the upcoming Stryker With Strings Goes To The Movies (Strikezone, January 10th). The expansive string and horn arrangement by Brent Wallarab gives the blaxploitation crime classic a dramatic jazz makeover, and Stryker is absolutely flying with his core band of electric pianist Xavier Davis, bassist Jeremy Allen and drummer McClenty Hunter.
Here’s a short album promo…
There’s more great guitar, this time from Dida Pelled who wails on fellow New Yorker vocalist Martina DaSilva’s hugely entertaining version of Mose Allison’s Your Mind Is on Vacation (La Reserve, 6th December). The trio of Pelled, electric bassist Johnathan Michel and drummer Charles Goold lay down the deeply bluesy groove, DaSilva’s vocal is warm, witty and spontaneous and Pelled’s guitar break is gorgeously loose and greasy. This is so much fun, here’s the video…
There’s a second track from drummer Carl Allen’s fantastic Tippin’ (Cellar Music, January 10th), already one of my favourite records of next year, and features double bassist Christian McBride and tenor saxophonist Chris Potter. They perform a fabulous version of James, the Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays composition recorded by the Pat Metheny Group on Offramp (ECM, 1982).
And while we’re talking drummers, Tony Williams features on two tracks that were both recorded during 1988. The first is the driving Red Mask from his Angel Street (Blue Note, 1988), with tenor saxophonist Billy Pierce, trumpeter Wallace Roney, pianist Mulgrew Miller and drummer Charnett Moffett.
The second is on pianist Don Pullen’s Jana’s Delight from New Beginnings (Blue Note, 1989), in a trio setting with double bassist Gary Peacock. The Jana in question was Pullen’s partner, the multimedia artist Jana Haimsohn.
Channelling the energy of the Greek islands is alto saxophonist Ed 'Tenderlonious' Cawthorne’s London based band Ruby Rushton with trumpeter Nick Walters, pianist Aidan Shepherd and drummer Tim Carnegie. Stapodia (22a, December 6th), is the first single from an upcoming album (no details yet) and is released as a limited edition 10” vinyl album. It’s also the name of an isolated island off Mykonos in the Cyclades.
Here’s the video:
There’s Ezra Collective’s keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones’ dubtastic Sorrowful Rhodes from Sorrow (Aquaril, December 6th), the third in his ‘Aquaril in Dub’ series and features drummer Morgan Simpson and bassist Luke Wynter. And there’s another track from the excellent Lophae (as in ‘lo-fi’) with Dedication to David T from Perfect Strangers (January 24th), featuring guitarist Greg Sanders, drummer Ben Brown, bassist Tom Herbert and tenor saxophonist Sam Rapley. Cut by Caspar Sutton-Jones at Gearbox too!
And finally…..Your Love Is Home, a beautiful song (not just for the holidays) written by bassist Alex Tremblay and vocalist of the moment Vanisha Gould from next year’s People and Places (La Reserve, April), also featuring alto saxophonist Nick Biello, guitarist Tony Davis, pianist Chris McCarthy and drummer Evan Hyde.
To listen to this week’s Jazz on The Beach on Mixcloud, just click below…
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Jazz On The Beach is broadcast live every Wednesday evening from 10.00pm - midnight and repeated the following Monday from 2.00am - 4.00am
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Music to shower by this morning!