Jazz on the Beach 191 & Blues Beach 77: Sly, Sinsuke Fujieda, Chet Baker, Shez Raja, Ben Sidran, lvdf, Binker & Moses, Emma Smith, Art Pepper
Blues Beach: a blast of fresh sea air
Following the sad news of Sly Stone’s death on Monday, this week’s Jazz on the Beach playlist opens with Sing a Simple Song from Stand! (Epic, 1969), probably his and the Family Stone’s finest album. The song’s iconic riff is a cornerstone of funk guitar, and was seconded by John McLaughlin on Right Off from Miles Davis’ A Tribute to Jack Johnson.
I was lucky enough to see them at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 and again two weeks later at the Lyceum Ballroom. They were a truly sensational band, with Sly at the organ, sister Rose on keyboards, brother Freddie on guitar, the great bassist Larry Graham, drummer Greg Errico and the horns of trumpeter Cynthia Robinson and saxophonist Jerry Martini, and in the studio, with extra vocals by Little Sister: Vet Stone, Mary McCreary and Elva Mouton.
On to this week’s new releases, and there’s a welcome burst of jazz rock fusion from the British-Asian electric bassist Shez Raja, with the hard swinging Quantum Spirits. It comes from Spellbound (Gearbox Records, 20th June), and features terrific playing from guitarist John Etheridge, tenor saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos and drummer Jamie Murray. Raja’s solo is a melodic revelation, and I’ve never heard Etheridge sound better than this.
Also new is Silver, the debut track from the exciting new collaboration between drummer Myele Manzana, pianist Maria Chiara Argirò, saxophonist Alex Hitchcock and bassist Michelangelo Scandroglio. They’ve called themselves lvdf, which I’m assuming is the acronym for left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, not exactly something that rolls off the tongue. Still, as Shakespeare (and Rodney Dangerfield) once said, what’s in a name?
I’m really enjoying pianist Noah Haidu on Duke Ellington’s Things Ain’t What They Used to Be from his third album of standards imaginatively titled Standards III (Infinite Distances, 6th June). He’s collaborating again with the impeccable double bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Hart, while on some of the album’s other tracks he’s bedding in a new, young rhythm section featuring double bassist Gervis Myles and drummer Charles Goold.
The British vocalist Emma Smith shares her fabulous voice and larger than life personality and fabulous voice on the Nat King Cole classic Frim Fram Sauce, taken from her upcoming album Bitter Orange (La Reserve, 18th July), featuring pianist Jamie Safir, double bassist Conor Chaplin and drummer Luke Tomlinson. She’s already well established in the UK, and now with US independent La Reserve and top publicist DL Media in her corner, she’ll be well on her way in the colonies too.
Here she sings Cole Porter’s Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please’.
I only picked up on saxophonist Sinsuke Fujieda thanks to Syd Schwartz raving about his new modal and spiritual jazz album Fukushima (SoFa Records, 30th April), in the essential Jazz and Coffee on Substack. Here’s the title track with Fujieda playing tenor alongside violinist Fumiko Takeshita, pianist Shinichi Tsukamoto, double bassist Shigeru Kato, drummer Kensaku Ohsumi and percussionist Kensaku Ohsumi. And Syd is absolutely correct, it really is that good. Unfortunately the vinyl has already sold out and is nowhere to be found, if you have any leads please let me know.
Another deeply satisfying spiritual cut comes from alto saxophonist Shamek Farrah and pianist Sonelius Smith, with the title track from The World of the Children (Strata East, 1977), featuring trumpeter Joseph Gardner, double bassist Kiyoto Fuiwara, drummer Freddie Wrenn and percussionist Tony Waters. This was one of a number of Strata East albums released digitally on Bandcamp in April, hopefully vinyl will reappear soon, but the excellent Pure Pleasure reissue cut by Ray Staff at Air is worth searching for.
I had a wonderful night at Ronnie Scott’s on Tuesday evening, listening to the pianist, singer and philosopher Ben Sidran on the final night of his annual European tour. As usual, his son Leo Sidran was drumming, and guesting on the London date were tenor saxophonist Leo Richardson and double bassist Orlando le Fleming.
One of the many highlights of the evening was Don’t Cry for No Hipster, so here’s his live version from Are We There Yet (Live at the Sunside) (Unlimited Media, 16th May), which was recorded last year in Paris with Leo, double bassist Billy Peterson, tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza and percussionist Moses Patrou.
As Sidran might have said in the song, both Art Pepper and Chet Baker ‘knew what they signed up for’. Pepper’s Blues for Blanche is from An Afternoon in Norway - The Kongsberg Concert (Elemental, May, and now digitally on Bandcamp), recorded in 1980 with pianist Milcho Leviev, double bassist Tony Dumas and drummer Carl Burnett, just a week after the now legendary Blues for the Fisherman shows at Ronnie Scott’s. The Blanche of the title was his white cat, named after Blanche du Bois from Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.
As for the Baker track, he’s playing flugelhorn on Boudoir from Cool Burnin’ with the Chet Baker Quintet (Prestige, 1967), with tenor saxophonist George Coleman, pianist Kirk Lightsey, double bassist Herman Wright and drummer Roy Brooks. It’s taken from Five From '65: The Quintet Summer Sessions box that’s coming in September from the excellent New Land Records.
And finally…there are few records that mean as much to me as Dem Ones (Gearbox Records, 2015), the debut from multi award winning duo tenor saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd. In fact, ten years on from its release it sounds fresher than ever.
The music was performed in the live room at Mark Ronson’s Zelig Studio and recorded direct to Gearbox's vintage Studer 1/4" tape machine in their mastering studio next door. The track I’ve chosen is Man Like GP, and as with the rest of there album there was no editing, overdubbing or mixing involved. This is surfing the analogue wave with some of the most exciting and emotive music I’ve ever heard.
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Blues Beach
Blues Beach is Jazz on the Beach’s little brother, and I treat the biweekly hour long playlist as a blast of fresh sea air. It’s my perfect early evening slot for the day after a late night jazz show. This week there are more real gems including Sunnyland Slim (aka Dr Clayton’s Buddy) with Illinois Central (RCA Victor, 1948), Snooky Prior’s Goin’ Back to Arkansas (Antone’s, 1996), Willie Mabon’s I’m the Fixer (USA Records, 1964) and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers’ Hideaway with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966).
There’s also Big Mama Thornton’s They Call Me Big Mama (Peacock, 1953), Canned Heat’s Let’s Work Together (Liberty, 1970), Davy Graham’s Cocaine (Decca, 1965) and A.C. Reed’s My Baby’s Been Cheating (Cool Records, 1966).
To listen to this week’s Blues Beach on Mixcloud, just click below:
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Jazz On The Beach broadcasts every Wednesday evening from 10:00 PM to midnight (UK time), repeating on Monday morning from 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM (UK time).
Blues Beach broadcasts every other Thursday from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM (UK time).