Playlist

Jazz for moving and grooving – 23/12/24

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The origins of jazz were very much tied up with music for dancers and there was no shortage of infectious beats and rhythms for Cosmic Jazz to choose from for our (almost) annual round up. It should give you an irresistible urge to move – try it out…

1. John Surman – Dance from John Surman/Messin’ Around 3: Tighten Up

If you have heard much of John Surman’s music over the years you may be surprised to find one of his tunes on this jazz dance-orientated edition of Cosmic Jazz. Fear not, this is a terrific dance number and was found by Derek on a jazz-dance compilation although the original self-titled album emerged on the Deram label as long ago as 1969. There’s pulsating percussion, clarion-like group brass and  a driving, soaring and simply unbelievable sax solo from Surman himself, leading to a wild conflagration of communal blowing, a percussion solo and more surprises before sax and bass wind things down. It just sounds as if the musicians were having such fun and enjoyment and any listener gets that vibe too. What a line-up this record has: Dave Holland on bass, Alan Jackson on drums and Kenny Wheeler and Harry Beckett on trumpets. John Surman is now 80 years old and announced recently that he will not be touring any more. But we’re sure he’ll still be making any more music and just this year (2024) he released his new album Words Unspoken on ECM Records.

2. Yoni Mayraz – Pawnshop from Dybbuk Tse!

We featured a track from this 2023 release earlier in the year. According to Bandcamp, all vinyl and CD versions have sold out – but see if you can track one down. You won’t be disappointed. Mayraz is a pianist and producer and the record was produced live with his band over the course of a week. The record tells the story of a malicious possession that is taking over one’s body and soul – so be prepared! The band members may not be known to you but this is all the more reason to list them – Eli Orr on bass, Roy Reemy on drums, Malan Vardy on saxophone, Joe Meinicove on flute and Roy Zuzoksky on trumpet. This is jazz with beats – there’s driving drum and bass leading the way through the contemporary, urban sound – but there’s also some sonic splashes of the sort that Derek remembers from his 1970s reggae and Lovers Rock 12″ singles. It was good to see Mayraz included in the programme for the 2024 London Jazz Festival and Dybbuk Tse! certainly deserves to be heard much more widely.

3. Patrice Rushen – What’s The Story from Prelusion/Before The Dawn

What’s The Story is a tune from pianist/keyboard player Patrice Rushen’s 1975 album Before The Dawn. It was also released on a 1998 CD release that also included her excellent album Prelusion. We love both of these – and if you’re looking for a vinyl copy of the latter record you should explore the 2024 re-release on the Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf series Craft label. What’s The Story is a funky/jazzy number that is driven along by the bass of Charles Meeks and drums of Harvey Mason, but the real excitement and complexity comes when Patrice Rushen steps to the fore on nimble, dexterous and fast-moving Fender Rhodes. Her band is both sizable and notable – Hubert Laws on flute, Lee Ritenour on guitar, George Bohannon on trombone, Oscar Brashear on flugelhorn with (on this track only) Josie James on vocals – who rather sadly seems to be stretching and struggling to keep up and be heard, not quite making it and getting overwhelmed by the other musicians.

4. Stevie Wonder – Superstition (Opolopo remix) from download

Neil is a huge fan of Hungarian-bornDJ and remixer Opolopo (real name Peter Major). Born in Hungary but now resident in Sweden, he spent the early part of his creative development tagging along with a touring keyboardist father and listening to fusion and electronic records with musicians like Herbie Hancock, Jeff Lorber, Earth Wind & Fire, Quincy Jones and others feeding his nascent ingenuity with beats. He’s collaborated with or remixed vocalists Gregory Porter, Omar and Steve Arrington and musicians Shaun Escoffery, The Sunburst Band and Azymuth. Neil loves his take on Herbie Hancock’s Hang Up Your Hang Ups/Butterfly which appeared on a GAMM label 12in a few years ago and here Opolopo lends his magic to Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. On first listening you might be confused because this is much more Herbie Hancock than Stevie Wonder – the music clearly samples Wah Wah Watson’s guitar from Hang Up Your Hang Ups, adds a cool bass line, some Fender Rhodes and female background vocals before we hear the familiar sound of Stevie Wonder.

5. Regalado – Pinoy Funk from Ayo Ke Disco: Boogie, Pop & Funk From The South China  Sea (1974-1988)

Neil loves this one  – and this 2024 compilation was Gilles Peterson’s favourite too. Ayo Ke Disco celebrates the musical identities that emerged during the 1970s and 80s from the newly independent countries nestled around the South China Sea – Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Soundway Records’ expert Alice Whittington (aka DJ Norsicaa) embraced her Malaysian heritage and collection of Asian records to create this excellent new compilation. Ayo Ke Disco (which means Let’s go to the disco in Bahasa Indonesian) draws from local label disco-funk, funk, synth, city pop, and Hindustani-Arabic rhythms to create a snapshot of the vibrant discotheques of the region. Both the vinyl and the accompanying zine are now sold out on Bandcamp but you can still download them or go to the Soundway Records site and order from there. Your local record store may also have copies and there should be a repress sometime in the new year. Jun Reglado was a very much in demand session drummer from the Philippines – and it certainly sounds as if he was listening to Herbie Hancock in 1977 when he recorded the excellent Pinoy Funk.

6. Herbie Hancock – Doin’ It from Secrets

Hancock repeated the success of his infectious groove on Hang Up Your Hang Ups with Doin’ It  from his 1976 album Secrets – and note the similarities between this and our previous tune… Herbie Hancock mastered the transition from Blue Note bop to disco grooves more authentically than anyone else in the jazz world, and his records for the Columbia label in the 1970s are all worth investigating. From the eponymous Headhunters record of 1973 to Thrust (1974), Manchild (1975) and Secrets (1976), these records demonstrate that genre-bending across jazz, funk and soul can really work.

7. Me’Shell Ndegeocello – Nocturnal Sunshine from Stolen Moments: Red Hot & Cool

Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool (1994) was one of the most successful incarnations of the Red Hot albums, each released to generate funds for fighting the AIDS virus. Unlike fellow albums in this series, which tended to focus on reworkings of classic songwriters, this release is all-new material with lyrics that directly address the AIDS epidemic – and liner notes by Professor Cornell West, to boot. The musicians involved include Ron Carter, Pharoah Sanders, and Donald Byrd but they’re performing alongside new blood from the world of rap – the Pharcyde, Guru, Michael Franti and MC Solaar. We’ve chosen a superb performance from bassist Me’Shell Ndegeocello, here performing with drummer Harvey Mason (again), guitarist Wah Wah Watson (again) and featuring a with a masterful contribution from Herbie Hancock (again!) on piano.

8. Cal Tjader – Noa Noa from Amazonas

Vibesman Cal Tjader’s was something of a musical traveller, and his Brazilian explorations certainly deepened with this release in which he joins forces with a bunch of young Brazilian musicians, all overseen by producer Airto Moreira. The result is a triumph, with a heady mix of Afro-Brazilian rhythms, American funk and 1970s electronics all linking beautifully with Tjader’s vibes and marimba. There’s a take on Moreira’s Xibaba here, but we chose Non Noa – a Sergio Mendes tune – with a terrific trombone solo from Raul de Souza. Also on the album are Egberto Gismonti, David Amaro and the great Hermeto Pascoal with arrangements throughout by George Duke under the improbable contractual pseudonym of Dawilli Gonga.

9. Elements of Life – Berimbau from Elements of Life: Eclipse

The berimbau is a single stringed instrument played with a bow, originating in Angola but later popularised in Brazil. It has become a popular instrument in Brazilian music but is also the name of and key instrument in  a tune written by Brazilian composers/musicians Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes. There have been many recorded versions of the tune by Brazilian artists including Astrud Gilberto, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, Tamba Trio, Virginia Rodrigues, Joyce and Tutty Moreno and many more. In New York, Cuban-born Latin great Celia Cruz recorded a version on Fania Records. And it is to New York and Fania Records (but a different generation from Celia Cruz) that we look to for this version released in 2013. Elements of Life is fluid group of musicians assembled by producer Louis Vega, featuring Josh Milan on vocals and Lisa Fischer on background vocals and vocal scats. There’s a trombone solo from Ozzie Melendez and the excellent Venezuelan-born Luisito Quintero is  on drums, congas and percussion. The tune rocks along at a formidable pace, but somehow sounds restrained – and that’s just fine. The Brazilian feel is definitely there, but there is added NY cool and a deep club groove. We love the tune and, indeed, the whole 2CD set Eclipse – check it out if you can.

10. Spanish Harlem Orchestra – Mama Guela from Un Gran Dia en el Barrio

We have acknowledged the links between Latin music and jazz on Cosmic Jazz for some time. It is possible that many would see more obvious links between Brazilian music and jazz, but the association is there too in salsa – as we think our final two joyful tunes on this show prove. Both of them keep us in New York and the band on this track take their name from the small neighbourhood in New York where many Latinos, particularly Puerto Ricans, live and from which so much great Latin music has emerged. The title of the 2002 album, from which this number is taken, is Un Gran Dia en el Barrio (A Great Day in the Neighbourhood) which references that most famous of jazz photos, A Great Day in Harlem, taken in New York in 1958. Spanish Harlem Orchestra give us a great day – a brassy big band sound, with superb tight musicianship and call and response between the lead singer (guest vocalist Jimmy Sabater) and background vocals. The Orchestra enlists some highly respected salsa musicians from Spanish Harlem to pay tribute to their ancestors and history (the design of the actual CD is based around the Puerto Rican flag), and are led by the pianist and arranger Oscar Hernandez.

11. Hector Lavoe – Mi Gente (Louis Vega EoL Remix) from I Like It Like That: CD 1: The Remixes

Louis Vega (see Berimbau above) returns – again via Fania Records. This time, he’s remixing a tune from Hector Lavoe (1946-1993), another Puerto Rican considered by many to be the greatest salsa singer and here singing to Mi Gente (My People). Lavoe had a distinctive voice delivered with such expression, playful enjoyment and emotion all of which is very evident in this tune. In the sleeve notes to the Elements of Life album Louis Vega described Hector Lavoe as ‘El Cantante de los Cantantes’. He sends a message to my dear uncle in heaven, thank you for teaching me so much… I remember to this day how you taught me about music, being an artist and leader, style and how much variation in all you did was so important. There’s not much you can add, except to say this number has more fine big band sounding musicianship – and great remixing too. There’s more great dialogue between lead vocalist and backing vocals, more in the way of joyful party time sounds and an incredible pace to the music. You would be challenged to stay still on listening  to this tune. What better way could there be to end a programme of jazzy sounds for moving and grooving?

Derek is listening to…

Neil is listening to…

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