Jazz On The Beach 84 & Blues Beach 24
Jazz On The Beach 84 & Blues Beach 24
The Bad Plus, Later... with Jools Holland, Harold Land & Hampton Hawes
Over the weekend I started thinking about the music to play on this week’s radio show, and remembered how much I liked tenor saxophonist Harold Land’s Ursula from the 1960 album West Coast Blues! I also made a note to add pianist Hampton Hawes’ Hip from the album For Real! which also features Harold Land and was released the following year. I started hunting for background and was amazed to find that the great pianist Ethan Iverson had written a piece about these same two tracks for his Do The M@th blog a couple of years ago.
That was the cue to add Goodness Knows from Ethan’s Blue Note debut Every Note Is True and the grungy Not Even Close To Far Off from the latest album and quartet lineup of The Bad Plus, with whom Ethan had previously played for 17 years.
I have many great memories of working with The Bad Plus during my time at Sony Music, from that first night at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in February 2003 to the main stage of the Barbican Centre in under two years. There was the time when we were finally offered a slot at short notice on BBC2’s Later…with Jools Holland. This exposure would help their profile immensely, not only in the UK but in the US and internationally where the show reached an even bigger audience. However, they were on tour in the U.S. Midwest and late ticket prices to fly them in specifically for one TV show and straight back out again would be extremely expensive.
We managed to find some budget (don’t ask, but it was from another department’s allocation and they never found out) plus someone managed to find some air miles, so pianist Ethan Iverson, drummer Dave King and double bassist Reid Anderson duly flew in and performed And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation from the album Give, alongside The Killers, Faithless, Graham Coxon, Ojos de Brujo, Bobby Womack and Tom Jones. The show was broadcast on 4th June 2004 and as you can see from the video below, they were magnificent.
Straight after filming ended we went for a late celebratory Indian meal in Chiswick before the band headed back to their hotel for a couple of hours’ nap and an early call for a flight back across the Atlantic.
On this week’s Blues Beach there’s Alexis Korner’s great solo version of Honky Tonk Woman from his album Me recorded direct-to-disc in 1979. There’s Slim Harpo’s Still Rainin’ In My Heart single on Excello from 1964 and Ronnie Earl and The Broadcasters with special guest Robert Jr. Lockwood performing Robert Johnson’s unrecorded song Mr Downchild from the Surrounded By Love album on Black Top in 1991. Whether Lockwood learned the song from Johnson I can’t tell you, but he was the only guitar player who learned to play directly from the great bluesman.
A couple of things…
While we’re talking about Ethan Iverson, here’s his excellent Transitional Technology Substack newsletter
This 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Custom Station Wagon caught my eye, even though it’s not exactly environmentally friendly.
Someone went to a lot of trouble to make this Coronation Post Box Topper situated opposite the pier on Deal sea front. And that’s my radio show sponsors Wellingtons in the background
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’.
amazing!!! Thanks Adam!!!!! Memories!!!!!!!