Jazz on the Beach 233: Nicholas Payton & Butcher Brown, Shungu Sawada, Your Brother's Keeper & Gary Bartz, Horace Silver, Knats, Joe Claussell, The Council of 9, Lee Morgan
'Jazz Is a Four-Letter Word...'
Jazz on the Beach returns after a week’s break, during which I went up to London to see New Jazz Underground at Ronnie Scott’s (they were incredible), and celebrated International Jazz Day hosting a packed-out Jazz Kissa with Middle Street Cafe.
On to this week’s playlist, let’s start with a terrific collaboration between Nicholas Payton & Butcher Brown on Miles Davis’ All Blues. It’s the first track from A Supreme Blue (Concord Jazz, no date yet), with Payton playing trumpet, kalimba and Fender Rhodes alongside tenor saxophonist Tennishu, keyboard and melodica player DJ Harrison, guitarist Morgan Burrs, bassist Andrew Randazzo and drummer Corey Fonville. Here’s the video.
Drummer and producer Jake Long’s band Maisha was one of the finest to emerge from the UK jazz scene of the last dozen or so years, and featured saxophonist Nubya Garcia, keyboard player Amane Suganami and guitarist Shirley Tetteh. Now Long returns, alongside original members Twm Dylan on double bass and percussionist Tim Doyle, as Your Brother’s Keeper, collaborating again with alto saxophonist Gary Bartz on the emotively powerful Cauldron from the album Where Rivers Meet (Brownswood, 19th June). Completing the lineup are keyboard player Ali MacSween, trumpeter Axel Kaner-Lidstrom and the phenomenal tenor saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael.
At last week’s Kissa I played side one of Oliver Nelson’s Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!, 1961). The Aaron Copland inspired Hoe Down was particularly well received, featuring Nelson playing tenor saxophone with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, alto saxophonist Eric Dolphy, baritone saxophonist George Barrow, pianist Bill Evans, double bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Roy Haynes. So grab a partner and swing ’em low…
Tapping into the cosmic consciousness of the Unified Jazz Groove Field comes drummer Chris Gale’s The Council of 9, with Light Upon Light from the concept album Times Nine (Galetone Records, 22nd April). Here’s the story… as each track progresses, Gale adds one more instrument to the arrangement, one more beat to the time signature and one minute to the running time.
Light Upon Light is the 5th track, which makes it a quintet performance in 5/4 time and 5 minutes long. It features Gale, tenor saxophonist Aldevis Tibaldi, trumpeter Sid Gauld, pianist Gabriel Keen and double bassist Richard Sadler, and is very good indeed. It sounds great too, recorded at Real World Studios and mastered by Gearbox Mastering’s Caspar Sutton-Jones.
I appreciate that I play a lot of tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, and I hope you agree that’s no bad thing. Here’s his version of Good Morning Heartache from the recently released Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase (Resonance, 18th April), recorded in 1978 with pianist Joanne Brackeen, double bassist Steve Rodby and drummer Danny Spencer.
Second plays from four superb new albums, starting with pianist Emmet Cohen’s Eternal Glimpse from Universal Truth, (Mack Avenue, 29th May), with double bassist Yasushi Nakamura, drummer Joe Farnsworth, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and tenor saxophonist Tivon Pennicott.
Also, alto saxophonist Patrick Bartley’s riotous version of Tadd Dameron and Count Basie’s Good Bait, a bonus track from We Play Music! (self-released, 15th April), with double bassist Russell Hall and drummer Stefan Klein.
There’s pianist Billy Childs with the fast moving One Fleeting Instant from Triumvirate (Mack Avenue, 24th April), with double bassist Matt Penman and drummer Ari Hoenig.
And Geordie nu jazzers Knats are flying on Azure Blues from A Great Day in Newcastle (Gearbox Records/Fontana, 1st May), featuring bassist Stanley Elvis Woodward, drummer King David Ike-Elechi and trumpeter Ferg Kilsby with pianist Sandro Shargarodsky, tenor saxophonist George Johnson, alto saxophonist Otto Kampa and guitarist Tom Ford.
I played the Italian saxophonist Emanuele Cisi’s title track from Pharoah’s Message again just a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve just received Joe Claussell’s two Sacred Rhythm remixes: Sacred Rhythm Epic Journey and Sacred Arts Drummers Cosmic Dub (Right Tempo/Mono Jazz, 5th June). However, I’m playing an alternate mix which will be released as a one-sided 12-inch at a future date.
I’m loving double bassist Nat Reeves’ snappy blues For RJ from his album Now in Time (Side Door, 17th April), with pianist Orrin Evans and drummer Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts. It’s the first release on the Side Door jazz club’s own label and celebrates the distinguished bassist’s 70th birthday.
There’s hard boppin’ (as there should be) with the Horace Silver Quintet’s Señor Blues from 6 Pieces of Silver (Blue Note, 1956), featuring pianist Silver, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, trumpeter Donald Byrd, double bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Louis Hayes.
Moving into post bop is trumpeter Lee Morgan’s Mr Kenyatta from Search for the New Land (Blue Note, 1966), with tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, guitarist Grant Green, double bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Billy Higgins.
And finally… I recently found a nice copy of the Shungo Sawada Quintet’s Formation (Victor World Group Japan, 1970), and really liked their version of Wayne Shorter’s Footprints, performed by guitarist Sawada with alto saxophonist Hideyuki Kikuchi, pianist You Tokuyama, double bassist Hironori Takitani and drummer Takahiro Suzuki.
To listen to this week’s Jazz on the Beach, click below:
Or listen back on Mixcloud:
Jazz on the Beach #233 6th May 2026
Horace Silver Quintet - Señor Blues
Oliver Nelson - Hoe Down
Nicholas Payton & Butcher Brown - All Blues
Your Brother’s Keeper & Gary Bartz - Cauldron
Emmet Cohen - Eternal Glimpse
The Council of 9 - Light Upon Light
Patrick Bartley Trio - Good Bait
Nat Reeves - For RJ
Knats - Azure Blues
Shungo Sawada Quintet - Footprints
Joe Henderson - Good Morning Heartache
Billy Childs - One Fleeting Instant
Lee Morgan - Mr Kenyatta
Emanuele Cisi - Pharoah’s Message (Joaquin Joe Claussell’s Alternate Sacred Rhythm Mix)
Kenny Burrell - Tres Palabras
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