Jazz on the Beach 236 & Blues Beach 99: Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Tete Mbambisa, Ray Bryant, Masahiko Satoh, Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble, Chris McCarthy, Andreas Toftemark, Grant Green
Making time for jazz and blues radio
Last Tuesday would have been Miles Davis’ 100th birthday, and on this week’s playlist we’re celebrating with the magnificent All Blues from Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959), featuring tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, double bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb. I sometimes feel that Kind of Blue gets taken for granted, with more time spent talking about it than actually listening and enjoying the music.
Miles also features on the Charlie Parker’s Out of Nowhere, recorded in 1947 and released on the 10” Charlie Parker Vol 4 (Dial, 1950), with pianist Duke Jordan, double bassist Tommy Potter and drummer Max Roach. And staying with Miles, pianist Ray Bryant plays a masterful Milestones from Con Alma (Columbia, 1961), with double bassist Arthur Harper and drummer Mickey Roker.
By now you’ve probably heard that the incomparable tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins passed away on Monday at 95. I had already chosen to play his version of Wonderful! Wonderful! when I heard the news, and although I briefly considered switching to something from A Night at the Village Vanguard or Saxophone Colossus, this track from Newk’s Time (Blue Note, 1959), with pianist Wynton Kelly, double bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Philly Joe Jones, lives up to its title and is a fitting homage to the great man himself.
New this week is pianist Chris McCarthy’s As If, the first track from the upcoming Too Late to Quit (La Reserve, 18th September), featuring trumpeter Takuya Kuroda, baritone saxophonist Eden Bareket, double bassist Sam Minaie, drummer Steven Crammer and the singer Vanisha Gould. It sounds like a modern standard that could have been written in the heyday of the Great American Songbook. Here’s the video, see if you don’t agree.
Danish tenor saxophonist Andreas Toftemark was playing with Vanisha Gould at Ronnie’s last week, and gave me a copy of the album he co-headlined with trumpeter Benny Benack III. Here’s the terrific title track from Roadmap (April Records, 2025), with pianist Rasmus Sørensen, double bassist Kaisa Möensivu and drummer Joe Peri.
Before the Ronnie’s show I was browsing in Sounds of the Universe, and was intrigued by the record playing over the shop. It turned out to be South African pianist Tete Mbambisa’s Did You Tell Your Mother (As-Shams/The Sun Records, 1979), which was reissued in 2020 after being out of print for decades. On this week’s playlist is Trane Ride, with tenor saxophonist Basil Coetzee, double bassist Zulu Bidi and drummer Monty Weber, and it’s an absolute joy.
A pair of astral jazz ensembles… there’s a second track by Leeds’ Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble with Celestial Matari from The Kármán Line (ATA Records, 1st May), featuring flautist Chip Wickham with pianist John Ellis, bassist Neil Innes, drummer Sam Hobbs, percussionist Sam Bell and harpist Alice Roberts, with horns and woodwinds from Laurence Mason, Steve Parry, Stephen Wild and Conrad Clinton.
Also, the Ontario-based Atlantis Jazz Ensemble with the powerful Spirits Unseen from their third album Mystic Suite (Marlow Records, March), with trumpeter Ed Lister, alto saxophonist Zakari Frantz, pianist Pierre Chrétien, double bassist Chris Pond and drummer Mike Essoudry, plus guest tenor saxophonist Petr Cancura and percussionist Marielle Rivard.
From Tony Higgins & Mike Peden’s latest essential compilation J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan 1970-1988 Vol. 5 (BBE, 1st May), comes Masahiko Satoh’s Garandoh with History of Jazz (edit). It was originally part of a box set aimed at primary school children and features keyboard player Masahiko Satoh, bassist Keiki Midorikawa and drummer Hozumi Tanaka. Here’s an excerpt from the sleeve notes (thanks to The Jazz Dad):
It’s a wild psychedelic trip into free funk, featuring an array of exotic instrumentation with sound and tape effects, underpinned by tough drums, horn stabs and popping bass, coloured by drips and splashes of molten electric piano. It even has an elephant.
Also from Japan, there’s keyboardist Fumio Karashima’s electrifying version of Weather Report’s American Tango from Hot Islands (Trio, 1979), with soprano saxophonist Kabuki Yamaguchi, bassist and the track’s composer Miroslav Vitous, and drummer George Ohtsuka.
And finally, we’re hard boppin’ as usual with guitarist Grant Green’s It Ain’t Necessarily So from Nigeria (Blue Note, 1980), recorded in 1962 with pianist Sonny Clark, double bassist Sam Jones and drummer Art Blakey. Also, there’s Johnny Griffin alongside fellow tenor saxophonists Hank Mobley and John Coltrane, trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist Wynton Kelly, double bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Blakey on All the Things You Are from Vol. 2, better known as A Blowin’ Session (Blue Note, 1957).
To listen to this week’s Jazz on the Beach, click below:
Or listen back on Mixcloud:
Jazz on the Beach #236 27th May 2026
The Ray Bryant Trio - Milestones
Sonny Rollins - Wonderful! Wonderful!
The Yussef Dayes Experience - Chi Ave / A Love Letter To Salvador
Charlie Parker - Out of Nowhere
Les McCann - Sometimes I Cry
Toftemark / Benack III Quintet - Roadmap
Masahiko Satoh’s Garandoh - History of Jazz (edit)
Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble - Celestial Matari
Tete Mbambisa - Trane Ride
Miles Davis - All Blues
Chris McCarthy - As If (feat. Vanisha Gould)
Grant Green - It Ain’t Necessarily So
Atlantis Jazz Ensemble - Spirits Unseen
Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Corazón
Fumio Karashima - American Tango
Johnny Griffin - All the Things You Are
Blues Beach
There’s a definite NOLA flavour to this week’s Blues Beach playlist (inspired by finally watching the excellent Treme), with Professor Longhair’s Tipitina, Fats Domino’s immortal Blue Monday, The Meters’ Hey Pocky A-Way and Snooks Eaglin’s Baby, Please Come Home.
The great Clarence Carter recently passed away at 90, and we raised a glass to his prowess on Sixty Minute Man featuring a vibrato-soaked guitar riff for the ages. There’s more soul from Wilson Pickett with the In the Midnight Hour flip-side I’m Not Tired, Sam Cooke’s Bring It On Home to Me and Eddie Hinton’s Everybody Needs Love. Albert King sings the Rolling Stones, who in turn sing Willie Dixon. Sue Foley hits the note on Pinky’s Blues and Little Junior Parker’s Feelin’ Good with the great Floyd Murphy Sr on guitar.
To listen to this week’s Blues Beach, click below:
Or listen back on Mixcloud:
Blues Beach #99 28th May 2026
The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Marked Deck
Albert King - Honky Tonk Woman
The Rolling Stones - Little Red Rooster
Wilson Pickett - I’m Not Tired
Eddie Hinton - Everybody Needs Love
Clarence Carter - Sixty Minute Man
Little Junior Parker & the Blue Flames - Feelin’ Good
Sue Foley - Pinky’s Blues
Delaney & Bonnie - Living On the Open Road
Fats Domino - Blue Monday
The Meters - Hey Pocky A-Way
Snooks Eaglin - Baby, Please Come Home
Sam Cooke - Bring It On Home to Me
Professor Longhair - Tipitina
Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland - St. James Infirmary
Clifton Chenier - The Hucklebuck
Lonnie Brooks - Something You Got
Mississippi John Hurt - Coffee Blues
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).