Jazz On The Beach 81
Jazz On The Beach 81
Live Jazz in Deal, The Crusaders, Christian Schwindt Quintet
The Jazz Crusaders dropped the ‘Jazz’ from their name in 1972 around the time that guitarist Larry Carlton started playing with them. The band had already been together for twenty years and were formed in Houston, Texas in 1952 by drummer Nesbert ‘Stix’ Hooper and tenor saxophonist (and later, also electric bassist) Wilton Felder, with trombonist Wayne Henderson and pianist Joe Sample joining a year later. They moved to California in 1958 and performed under a number of different names before settling in 1961 on The Nite Hawks for their ‘day job’ of dance gigs and The Jazz Crusaders for their jazz albums. There’s far more to this story of course, but the point is that it can take an awfully long time for real talent to be recognised. But when it finally was, they were ready.
The Crusaders’ track on this week’s playlist is A Message from the Inner City from the album Second Crusade, released on Chisa/Blue Thumb in March 1973. It’s a beautiful Joe Sample tune and the playing is terrific. The album was produced by Stewart Levine who was crucial to their development (Levine was also Hugh Masekela’s producer and partner in Chisa Records) and was distributed through Bob Krasnow and Tommy LiPuma’s Blue Thumb label. Like its predecessor, Crusaders I, the album did well, selling over 250,000 units, and there were even bigger successes to come a few years later. But The Crusaders’ best years (musically, at least) only lasted a little while longer until Wayne Henderson left the band in 1974.
Surprisingly, I’ve only played five Crusaders tracks on Jazz On The Beach since the show began, but I’ll certainly be playing more. If you want to dig deeper, GRP/Blue Thumb released an excellent 4-CD compilation Way Back Home in the mid 90s that Stewart Levine put together with great attention to detail. It’s well worth seeking out…if you still have a CD player. Alternatively, it’s available on Apple Music and Spotify, but without the discography, details, photos and essay by Quincey Troupe.
Also on this week’s playlist, the Christian Schwindt Quintet’s Nepa, originally released as a single on Scandia in 1963, and reissued in 2014 on an extremely hard to find deluxe edition of the 1966 album For Friends and Relatives. If you haven’t heard this wonderful slice of Finnish jazz you’re probably going to love this. The lineup is drummer Schwindt, alto saxophonist Tuomas Kotovirta, pianist Pentti Hietanen, tenor saxophonist Erik Dannholm and double bassist Pekka Sarmanto. There’s even a hint of Miles’ So What in the head - fantastinen!
As for new releases….Norma Winstone & Will Bartlett’s beautiful The Soundless Dark on Jellymould (see below), 88 year old saxophonist George Coleman sounding great with At Last on Cellar Live, a reflective Alfa Mist and vocalist/bassist Kaya Thomas-Dyke with Aged Eyes on Anti-Records, Five-Way Split - trumpeter Quentin Collins, saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos, pianist Rob Barron, double bassist Matyas Hofecker and drummer Matt Home’s hard boppin’ Lingua Franca on Ubuntu and trumpeter Erik Truffaz’s brooding film theme Route de Nuit on Blue Note.
Live Jazz in Deal
30th April: Chris Ingham Quartet: The Jazz of Dudley Moore
Dudley Moore was as fine a jazz musician as he was an actor and comedian, so celebrate International Jazz Day at The Astor with pianist Chris Ingham leading a quartet featuring Jamie Cullum’s old rhythm section of Geoff Gascoyne and Sebastian de Krom with trumpeter Paul Higgs.
1st June: Renato D’Aiello Quartet at The Lighthouse
The classy tenor saxophonist leads a fine quartet featuring Dealite Jake Werth on piano. The Lighthouse is putting on more jazz music than ever these days, with the rearranged Xhosa Cole Quartet date on 27th April. Go James and David!
9th July: Norma Winstone, Will Bartlett, Tony Kofi: The Soundless Dark at The Astor
Norma Winstone lives just along the seafront in Kingsdown and her performance at the Astor Theatre will be one of the highlights of this year’s Deal Music and Arts Festival.
Every Saturday from 5pm - 7pm at the Walmer Castle in South Street, led by the excellent tenor saxophonist Graeme Airth.
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’.