Jazz On The Beach 77
Listen to more jazz music this Spring
Wes Montgomery was born one hundred years ago on March 6th 1923, only thirteen years after Django Reinhardt and seven after Charlie Christian. All three of these great musicians revolutionised guitar playing and sadly died young (particularly Christian at 25), but it’s Montgomery’s legacy that has probably had the most impact on jazz and popular music. On the playlist this week is The Trick Bag with organist Melvin Rhyne and drummer Jimmy Cobb from the album Boss Guitar, released on Riverside in 1963.
The pianist, composer and arranger Steven Feifke recently became the youngest Grammy Award winner (at 31) of the Best Large Jazz Ensemble album category for last year’s Steve Feifke & Bijon Watson Present Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra. Here’s his version of Benny Golson’s Stablemates featuring saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown from Catalyst, coming later this year from La Reserve Records.
A couple of weeks ago I played two tracks with a strong Americana flavour from Béla Fleck and The Flecktones and the Pat Metheny Group. So keeping in a similar vein, here again is (Take me to the) Wide Open Lows from saxophonist Binker Golding’s Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy, one of J.O.T.B.’s Albums of the Year (along with Samara Joy’s Linger Awhile). He’s playing live with an extended seven piece band including Benet McLean (violin) and Philip Achille (chromatic harmonica) at dates including the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Forge London and the Love Supreme Festival. I was at his sensational Purcell Room show in November, here’s Richard Williams' review.
Recommendations
Rahsaan Roland Kirk Return of the 5000 lb Man
From the WaxPoetics archives, a piece on the Rahsaan Roland Kirk album and the track Theme for the Eulipions from this week’s playlist.
Colourised film of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet at the BBC
From Marc Myers’ JazzWax, here’s Cannonball Adderley’s Quintet performing on BBC TV’s Jazz 625 from 1964 hosted by Steve Race.
The WWUH Jazz Pronunciation Guide
An incredibly useful and amusing resource from the University of Hartford radio in Connecticut edited by ‘Jazz Officer Spaak’ aka Gregory Laxor.
Radio Times
Listen live to Jazz On The Beach every Wednesday from 10.00pm - midnight and Blues Beach every other Thursday from 6.00pm - 7.00pm via the internet on DealRadio.co.uk or the TuneIn Radio app. Or alternatively, just ask your smart device to ‘Play Deal Radio’.