Jazz on the Beach 221 & Blues Beach 92: Archie Shepp, Jesse Davis, Dida Pelled, Grupo Um, Martin Wind, Timo Lassy, Jukka Eskola, Kenny Barron
This week's jazz and blues radio, notes and playback links
On this week’s Jazz on the Beach radio playlist is an absolutely killer track from tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp with the deeply funky R&B of Abstract from For Losers (Impulse! 1970). The album consisted of tracks from three sessions with different musicians recorded over 12 months, with more appearing on Kwanza (Impulse! 1974). But here the players are trumpeter Jimmy Owens, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, alto saxophonist James Spaulding, baritone saxophonist Charles Davis, organist Dave Burrell, guitarist Wally Richardson, bassist Bob Bushnell and drummer Bernard Purdie.
It’s been a long wait since Brixton and Harlem-based tenor saxophonist Ruben Fox released his debut Introducing Ruben Fox (Rufio, 2021), which included JOTB favourites J.A.Z.Z. and father Mat Fox’s So Much Joy, sung by Samara Joy with Vuyo Sotashe and Shenel Johns. Now comes the first taster of his upcoming In Two Minds (Banger Factory, 13th March), and it’s a terrific duet with pianist Micah Thomas of the traditional Greensleeves. It was great to see Ruben onstage at the Grammys with Olivia Dean who won the Best New Artist award.
Alto saxophonist Jesse Davis is really playing the blues on Choctaw Alley from Reflections (Cellar Music/La Reserve, 3rd April), featuring pianist Spike Wilner, double bassist John Webber and drummer Lewis Nash. The album was recorded last March at GB’s Juke Joint in Long Island City and sounds terrific. For the last twenty years the 60 year old former Young Lion from New Orleans has been living in the lovely city of Verona in Northern Italy. From Greensleeves to Verona, all very Shakesperian…
The Israeli born, New York-based guitarist, vocalist, podcaster and choirmaster Dida Pelled goes right back to the early 20th century for the risqué Hesitation Blues. It comes from her upcoming self-proclaimed ‘lesbian ass blues album’ I Wish You Would (La Reserve, 1st May), featuring pianist Sullivan Fortner (who just won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album), bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Pelled’s playing and singing have tremendous feel and the piano solo from Fortner is fantastic.
From the vaults comes the Brazilian band Grupo Um’s long lost unreleased album Nineteen Seventy Seven (Far Out Recordings, 30th January), that was recorded 49 years ago during the dark days of the country’s military dictatorship. Here’s the tremendously exciting Cortejo dos Reis Negros (Parade of the Black Kings) featuring keyboard player Lelo Nazario, drummer Zé Eduardo Nazario, bassist Zeca Assumpção, soprano saxophonist Roberto Sion and percussionist Carlinhos Gonçalves.
I’m enjoying double bassist and composer Martin Wind’s beautiful version of Duke Ellington’s Black Butterfly from Stars (Newvelle Records, 30th January), featuring clarinettist Anat Cohen, pianist Kenny Barron and drummer Matt Wilson. Here’sa video of the standard Moon and Sand, an unreleased track from the album.
One of the first Miles Davis albums I remember being aware of was Miles in the Sky (Columbia 1968), which had been given to my parents along with Miles and Monk at Newport (Columbia, 1964). Here’s the driving Paraphernalia with guitarist George Benson adding some drive to Miles’ quintet of tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, double bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams.
The Finnish tenor saxophonist Timo Lassy & trumpeter Jukka Eskola are positively flying on the single Al Ponto (Nordic Stew/Dox Records, 2024), recorded in New Orleans in 2022 during the Nordic Stew album sessions. This swings like anything, thanks to drummer Herlin Riley, pianist David Torkanowsky, double bassist Roland Guerin, trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, sousaphonist Kirk Joseph, tubist Matt Perrine and percussionist Abdissa Assefa. No credit given for the handclaps, but once they come in during Riley’s solo, they’ve got to stay.
It’s been exactly a year since I last played tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon’s wonderful Tanya from One Flight Up (Blue Note, 1965), recorded in Paris with trumpeter and the song’s composer Donald Byrd, pianist Kenny Drew, double bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Art Taylor.
There’s alto saxophonist Phil Woods’ Willow Weep for Me from Musique du Bois (Muse, 1974), with pianist Jaki Byard, double bassist Richard Davis and drummer Alan Dawson. And from the same year, session ace Cornell Dupree gives a masterclass of cool guitar on King Curtis’ Blue Nocturne from Teasin’ (Atlantic, 1974), with fellow heavyweights organist Richard Tee, bassist Chuck Rainey, drummer Bernard Purdie, percussionist Ralph McDonald, saxophonists David ‘Fathead’ Newman and Seldon Powell and trumpeters Joe Newman and Jon Faddis.
There’s more from the previously mentioned Kenny Barron with Sunset, the opening track from Sunset to Dawn (Muse, 1973), reissued in November by Time Traveller’s Muse Master Edition series. He’s playing electric piano with bassist Bob Cranshaw, drummer Freddie Waits, conguero Richard Landrum and vibraphonist and percussionist Warren Smith.
And finally… is it Charles or Charlie? Hammond organist Charles Earland switched to Charlie for his album Soul Crib (Choice, 1969), and tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse became Charles for Two Is One (Strata-East, 1974). Earland plays a brief and typically funky take on Milestones featuring tenor saxophonist George Coleman, guitarist Jimmy Ponder and drummer Walter Perkins, while Rouse is no less in the groove on Hopscotch with guitarist Paul Metzke, double bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer David Lee and percussionist Airto Moreira.
To listen to this week’s Jazz on the Beach on Mixcloud, just click below:
Jazz on the Beach #221 4th February 2026
Timo Lassy & Jukka Eskola - Al Ponto
Charlie Earland Trio feat. George Coleman - Milestones
Jesse Davis - Choctaw Alley
Ruben Fox with Micah Thomas - Greensleeves
Kenny Barron - Sunset
Grupo Um - Cortejo dos Reis Negros
Martin Wind - Black Butterfly
Miles Davis - Paraphernalia
Cornell Dupree - Blue Nocturne
Dida Pelled - Hesitation Blues
Archie Shepp - Abstract
Phil Woods - Willow Weep for Me
Leon Spencer - Louisiana Slim
Charles Rouse - Hopscotch
Dexter Gordon - Tanya
Blues Beach
Here’s the latest biweekly Blues Beach playlist, which I hope is the right mix of old favourites and new discoveries. Opening the show are three instrumental stormers: Denny Freeman’s Rockin’ with B.B., Albert King’s You Don’t Love Me and Travis Wammack’s Have You Ever Had the Blues. There’s Ike & Tina Turner’s Five Long Years from their Outta Season album, Jimmy (DeBerry) and Walter (Horton’s) Easy which was Sun Records’ first major hit and Henry Thomas’s Bull-Doze Blues that Canned Heat turned into Going up the Country which was on the last playlist.
There’s B.B. King’s How Blue Can You Get, Johnny Winter’s Mean Town Blues which inspired Blues Beach’s opening jingle, but it could never sound as good as Johnny played it. Plus a young Robben Ford in the Charles Ford Band, the Mississippi Sheiks, Maria Muldaur channelling Victoria Spivey and Jimmy Vaughan era Fabulous Thunderbirds too.
To listen to this week’s Blues Beach on Mixcloud, just click below:
Blues Beach #92 5th February 2026
Denny Freeman - Rockin’ with B.B.
Albert King - You Don’t Love Me
Travis Wammack - Have You Ever Had the Blues
The Fabulous Thunderbirds - One’s Too Many
Howlin’ Wolf - Who’s Been Talking
Ike & Tina Turner - Five Long Years
Lazy Lester - Sugar Coated Love
Magic Slim & the Teardrops - Cold Women With Warm Hearts
Muddy Waters - Long Distance Call
Henry Thomas - Bull-Doze Blues
Johnny Winter - Mean Town Blues
Otis Rush - Double Trouble
B.B. King - How Blue Can You Get
The Mississippi Sheiks - Sitting on Top of the World
Jimmy and Walter - Easy
Charles Ford Band - Gibson Creek Shuffle
Maria Muldaur - My Handy Man
Black Ace - Fore Day Creep
Listen live to Deal Radio - click here
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).