Jazz on the Beach 223 & Blues Beach 93: Roy Hargrove, Sachi Hayasaka & Stir Up! Cannonball Adderley & Bill Evans, Peter Erskine, Gabrielle Cavassa, Tina Brooks, The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis
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I know I’ve said this before, but there really are some exciting new releases on this week’s Jazz on the Beach playlist. Right at the top of the pile is a tremendous live performance of Circus from the great trumpeter Roy Hargrove. It comes from the album Bern (Time Traveller Recordings, 18th April), which captures a previously unreleased Bern Jazz Festival set from May 2000 when he was 30 years old.
Hargrove and his quintet of alto saxophonist Sherman Irby, pianist Larry Willis, double bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Willie Jones III are really flying on this standard, best known for the Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers recording from 1961. But as fans the Marx Brothers may know, it was originally a hit for Tony Martin. Tenement Symphony anyone?
Also sounding wonderful is drummer Peter Erskine’s all analogue chain recording of Keith Jarrett’s Bop-Be from Peregrine (Hard Wag Records, 10th April), with pianist Alan Pasqua and double bassist Scott Colley. This appears to be the debut release on Hard Wag, (meaning ‘most excellent’ and ‘pure joy’), and this family-run label continues the legacy and high audio standards set by the late Mark Brunner of Reelsounds Studio in Chicago, where the album was recorded.
There’s an early taste of vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa’s Blue Note debut Diavola (Blue Note, 1st May), not counting her collaboration with Joshua Redman on Where Are We (Blue Note, 2023). It’s the classic Prisoner of Love, with Redman and Don Was producing and featuring guitarist Jeff Parker, double bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Brian Blade.
Here’s a video of Cavassa performing Prisoner of Love with guitarist Gabe Schneider.
Sticking with Blue Note, there’s the second single from tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III with Casual - Lee from Twio Vol. 2 (Blue Note, 6th March), this time with Branford Marsalis guesting on tenor, double bassist Ron Carter and drummer Kendrick Scott.
In an unreliable world one can always depend on a new album from tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis before long, this time it’s his second with rockers The Messthetics. There’s the powerful Gestations from Deface the Currency (Impulse! 20th February), with guitarist Anthony Pirog, bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty. Now they’ve got to know each other better, this album is even better than the first one from 2024.
Not a new recording, but an exhilarating new reissue from alto saxophonist Sachi Hayasaka & Stir Up! with Free Fight (privately pressed on Mobys, 1988), released by BBE last week in its J-Jazz Masterclass series. This was Hayasaka’s debut as a bandleader and covers post bop, free jazz and deep grooves. Here’s the storming Nbagi featuring trumpeter Tetsuji Yoshida, pianist Naoki Kubojima, double bassist Toshi Nagata, drummer Ken Tsunoda and percussionist Tomohiro Yahiro.
Another pick from J Jazz’s Masterclass series is Makoto Terashita meets Harold Land - Topology (Aketa’s Disk, 1984, BBE 2019), where the tenor saxophonist Harold Land guests with pianist Makoto Tersahita and her trio of double bassist Yasushi Yoneki, drummer Mike Reznikoff and percussionist Takayuki Koizumi. I chose the Land composition World Peace, but those by Tersahita are great too.
There are two absolute monsters from Black Jazz Records this week, starting with tenor saxophonist Rudolph Johnson and the title track from Spring Rain (Black Jazz, 1971), with pianist John Barnes, double bassist Reggie Johnson and drummer Ray Pounds.
And from two years later, there’s Walter Bishop, Jr’s 4th Cycle with Soul Village from Keeper of My Soul (Black Jazz, 1973), with Bishop playing electric piano alongside alto saxophonist Ronnie Laws, vibraphonist Woody Murray, bassist Gerald Brown, drummer Bahir Hassan and percussionist Shakur M. Abdulla.
Of all the classic jazz reissues released over the last few years, one of the finest is surely alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and pianist Bill Evans’ Know What I Mean? (Riverside, 1962). Here’s the magnificent title track with the rhythm section of double bassist Percy Heath and drummer Connie Kay.
We’re still hard boppin’ on here on the Kent coast with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers’ ferocious title track from Free for All (Blue Note, 1965), written by tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter with the incredible lineup of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Cedar Walton and double bassist Reggie Workman. The sheer power of Blakey’s drums would make any heavy rock drummer shudder.
Also, there’s the sadly underrated tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks with David the King from The Waiting Game (Blue Note, 1999), recorded in March 1961 with trumpeter Johnny Coles, pianist Kenny Drew, double bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Brooks’ heroin addiction curtailed his career and eventually his life, he never recorded after 1961 and was gone 13 years later at 42.
One of my first releases when I started at Sony Jazz UK was Joe Cool’s Blues (Columbia, 1995), by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his father, the pianist Ellis Marsalis. The repertoire was mostly Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts compositions with some by Wynton. The tracks were split between Ellis’ trio and Wynton’s septet, and here’s the septet’s Linus and Lucy, with Wynton, pianist Eric Reed, alto saxophonist Wessell Anderson, tenor saxophonist Victor Goines, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, double bassist Ben Wolfe and drummer Herlin Riley. There’s so much warmth and a sense of fun that’s contagious.
And finally… after playing New Jazz Underground last week I wanted to play something from Binker and Moses, who ten years ago were igniting the UK jazz scene in the way New Jazz Underground are doing in the US today. Here’s Fete by the River from Journey to the Mountain of Forever (Gearbox Records, 2017). It’s just Binker Golding playing tenor and Moses Boyd playing drums, recorded straight to stereo tape.
Here’s B&M from Later with Jools Holland with Intoxication From The Jahvmonishi Leaves from the same album.
To listen to this week’s Jazz on the Beach on Mixcloud, just click below:
Jazz on the Beach #223 18th February 2026
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers - Free for All
Binker and Moses - Fete by the River
Peter Erskine - Bop-Be
Gabrielle Cavassa - Prisoner of Love
Wynton Marsalis Septet - Linus and Lucy
The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis - Gestations
Elvin Jones - Dear John C.
Rudolph Johnson - Spring Rain
Roy Hargrove - Circus
Makoto Terashita meets Harold Land - World Peace
Walter Bishop, Jr’s 4th Cycle - Soul Village
Tina Brooks - David the King
Walter Smith III - Casual - Lee
Cannonball Adderley & Bill Evans - Know What I Mean?
Sachi Hayasaka & Stir Up! - Nbagi
Lou Donaldson - L.D. Blues
Ryo Fukui - Mellow Dream
Blues Beach
It’s back to basics on Blues Beach this week after the recent genre hopping episodes. But as well as classics like Slim Harpo’s Got Love if You Want It, Jimmy Reed’s My First Plea, Etta James’ I’d Rather Go Blind and Koko Taylor’s Wang Dang Doodle, there’s also Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson as Young John Watson with the wildly futuristic Space Guitar, Earl King’s New Orleans strut on Trick Bag, British blues royalty with Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and I Loved Another Woman and house rocking music from Hound Dog Taylor, Elmore James and George Thorogood.
To listen to this week’s Blues Beach on Mixcloud, just click below:
Blues Beach #93 19th February 2026
Jimmie Vaughan - Comin’ and Goin’
Lowell Fulson - Tramp
Etta James - I’d Rather Go Blind
Slim Harpo - Got Love if You Want It
Fleetwood Mac - I Loved Another Woman
Elmore James & his Broomdusters - Happy Home
Taj Mahal - I Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Steal My Jellyroll
Jimmy Rogers - Chicago Bound
Muddy Waters - Mean Old Frisco Blues
Koko Taylor - Wang Dang Doodle
Earl King - Trick Bag
Buddy Guy - I Suffer With the Blues
Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson - Space Guitar
Junior Wells Chicago Blues Band - Hey Lawdy Mama
Jimmy Reed - My First Plea
Arthur Gunter - No Naggin’, No Draggin’
Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers - Wild About You Baby
George Thorogood & the Destroyers - Madison Blues
Ronnie Earl - Green Light
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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).