This week’s pre-recorded show was a mix of old and new, local and global. Some great sounds – and definitely worth checking out via the Mixcloud tab.
If I want to hear a piece of music that is deep, serene, calm and beautiful I would be hard pushed to find anything to surpass Peace Piece by pianist Bill Evans. The title made an important statement for the time it was released in 1958. A German CD re-release includes an excellent re-working of Peace Piece entitled Some Other Time and it was this wonderful tune that opened the show.
Sensitive piano playing was well to the fore in the RGG tune Tenderness from their album Memento. RGG are a young group, whose achievements have been recognised in their homeland Poland and this album has been up there as one of the current Cosmic Jazz favourites for several weeks.
The piano feature was completed by Cuban pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa and his trio. Their album Un Dia Cualquiera was recorded in Boston USA for Mack Avenue, a US label, but Cuba remains their base.
The Piotr Schmidt Quartet are also from Poland. The leader is a trumpeter with a PhD in music from Katowice. The tune 21 Grams comes from a tribute album to Tomasz Stanko, one of the greatest and probably most well-known Polish trumpeter both inside and outside Poland..
The Janczarski-McCraven Quintet is a Polish/US fusion band. Boris Janczarski is a Polish sax player who first graduated in law in France and then, under the guidance of another great Polish jazz musicianPiotr Wojtasik, became a jazz artist. Steven McCraven is a drummer from the USA and the father of drummer Makaya McCraven – currently winning many admirers in the US and the UK and a firm Cosmic Jazz favourite.
There is always room for US jazz greats on the show and none more so than the spiritually uplifting Cannonball Adderley. There is room also for promising newcomers such as bass player Ameen Saleem and the more established but still contemporary Lettuce, whose single Krewe has been another programme favourite. To end there was a glimpse of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble who combine both the traditional and the contemporary in US music – literally in the personnel (Kelan Philip Cohran & his six sons) and the style of music.
- Bill Evans – Some Other Time from Everybody Likes Bill Evans
- RGG – Tenderness from Memento
- Harold Lopes-Nussa – Contiga en la Distancia from Un Dia Cualquiera
- Piotr Schmidt Quartet – 21 Grams from Tribute to Tomasz Stanko
- Janczarski & McCraven – Travelling West from Travelling East-West
- Cannonball Adderley – Space Spiritual from Walk Tall
- Ameen Saleem – Possibilities from Groove Lab
- Lettuce – Krewe single from album Elevate
- Kelan Philip Cohran & the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – Apsara from Kelan Philip Cohran & the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
Derek is listening to…..
- Lupe Fiasco – Kick Push
- Tomasz Stanko Quartet – Little Thing Jesus
- Piotr Wojtasik – Stay in Time of Freedom
- Max Romeo – Socialism is Love
- Bob Andy – Life
Neil is listening to…
- Shirley Horn – My Man’s Gone Now
- Four Tet – Circling
- Camarao Orkestra – Nacao Africa
- Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto – Corcovado
- Joao Gilberto – Chega de Saudade