Jazz on the Beach 174: Pasquale Grasso, Boyce Justice Griffith, Sullivan Fortner, Emma Rawicz & Gwilym Simcock, Leon Anderson, New Jazz Underground, Ron Ledoux and Dayna Stevens
Archie Shepp & Horace Parlan, Leon Parker and Les McCann
On this week’s Jazz on the Beach radio playlist there’s a tremendous version of Bud Powell’s Sub City by the guitar virtuoso Pasquale Grasso, who regularly opened his Monday sets at Mezzrow in Greenwich Village with this tune. All the thirteen tracks on Fervency (Sony Masterworks, 7th February), were recorded with double bassist Ari Roland and drummer Keith Balla in March 2022 during sessions for other projects with producer Matt Pierson.
If you’re not familiar with Grasso’s work, he was an integral part (as was drummer Kenny Washington) of the development and initial success and breakthrough of singer Samara Joy, and over the last few years has recorded a series of sensational solo guitar albums. His technique is close to nonpareil, but more importantly, he plays with swing, invention and feeling.
Next there are two excellent tracks from two prodigious saxophonists….Boyce Justice Griffith has just released The State of Being from his upcoming concept album The Point (Outside in Music, 21st March), with trumpeter Anthony Hervey, pianist Isaiah J Thompson, double bassist Marty Jaffe and drummer John Sturino. I’m also really enjoying Dayna Stephens’ Hard Boiled Wonderland from Hopium (Contagious Music, 7th February), with pianist Aaron Parks, double bassist Ben Street and drummer Greg Hutchinson. As some of you may have guessed from the title, this Parks composition draws on Haruki Murakami’s ideas of alternate realities from his book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
And on that note, here’s an enjoyable NTS guide to Jazz in Murakami’s Novels.
The pianist Sullivan Fortner’s long awaited Southern Nights is finally out (Artwork Records, 14th February). It was recorded with double bassist Peter Washington and drummer Marcus Gilmore immediately after a week’s residency at the Village Vanguard last July. I’ve picked Allen Toussaint’s title track and already played Tres Palabras a few weeks ago, and am looking forward to playing this album when the weather finally improves - it’ll sound even better.
I’m thoroughly enjoying Montreal guitarist Ron Ledoux’s A Stone’s Throw Away from his latest Views, Visions & Destinations (20th January), with keyboardist Paul Shrofel, bassist and arranger Gilbert Joanis and drummer Rich Irwin. Ledoux’s tone is gorgeous, he plays a newish Gibson 335 with 57 classic pickups through a Fender Princeton Custom ‘68 fitted with an Eminence Lil’ Buddy, plus a hair of Maxon overdrive and some Boss analogue delay. But it’s all in the fingers!
PJ’s (perhaps inspired by The PJ’s cartoon?) is an absolute cracker from drummer Leon Anderson with trumpeter John Michael Bradford, tenor saxophonist Ricardo Pascal, pianist Oscar Rossignoli and double bassist Rodney Jordan. It comes from the Florida State University Director of Jazz Studies’ debut album Live at Snug Harbour (Outside in Music, 4th April), where they set fire to bandstand at the celebrated New Orleans Jazz Bistro.
Something old, something new dept: there are two saxophone and piano duets this week, with Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan’s title track from Trouble in Mind (Steeplechase, 1980), and Emma Rawicz and Gwilym Simcock’s The Shape of a New Sun from the upcoming Big Visit (ACT, 28th March). Shepp plays the blues on a tenor while Rawicz plays her matutinal composition on a soprano, and both are wonderful.
New Jazz Underground just dropped their latest entitled Dying of Thirst: The Kendrick Lamarr Suite (8th February), so here’s All The Stars with tenor saxophonist Abdias Armenteros, double bassist and producer Sebastian Rios, drummer TJ Reddick, pianist Eric ‘ELEW’ Lewis and vocalist Jillian Grace.
Here’s the video…
Nowhere near as well known as he deserves to be is the drummer and percussionist Leon Parker with All My Life from Awakening (Columbia, 1998), featuring alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, percussion by Parker and Natalie Cushman and the poet Tracie Morris. As far as I know he’s living in Paris these days, if you’ve seen him play recently please let me know.
And finally…I love Leon Parker’s version of Monk’s Bemsha Swing from Above and Below (Epicure, 1994), which was produced by Joel Dorn, who also produced pianist Les McCann’s Doin’ That Thing from Much Les (Atlantic, 1969), written by bassist Leroy Vinnegar with drummer Donald Dean, percussionists Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja with strings arranged by William Fischer. I recently played Burnin’ Coal (as featured in Apple TV’s Severance) from this album, it’s such a good record.
To listen to this week’s Jazz on The Beach on Mixcloud, just click below:
Listen live on Deal Radio or Catch up on Mixcloud
Jazz On The Beach broadcasts live every Wednesday evening from 10:00 PM to midnight (UK time), with a repeat on Monday mornings from 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM (UK time).
Blues Beach broadcasts live every other Thursday from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM (UK time).
Not sure what you mean by recent, but I saw Leon Parker killing it with bassist Clovis Nicolas at the Duc des Lombards in Paris in June 2023. It was a quartet with Simona Premazzi on piano and the great Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, in support of Nicolas' album "The Contrapuntist."
Pasquale!