Here’s a new way of selecting music for Cosmic Jazz. Neil copied Mazzy’s Whack-a-Mole (US record collector and vlogger Norman Maslov), turned his back on the music shelves and selected five discs at random – and this is what emerged… Derek chose records from his shelves that contrast with Neil’s selections and that he has not listened to for some time.
- Finn Peters – Butterflies from Butterflies
We have played this tune on the show previously – way back in February 2009 and soon after its release. Saxophonist and flautist Finn Peters had long immersed himself in dance, hip hop, Afro-Cuban, electronica and contemporary classical musics, before returning to his jazz roots with the excellent Su-Ling album in 2006. The follow-up Butterflies album featured pretty much the same quintet as Su-Ling but added (in a very subtle way) strings, a Balinese gamelan ensemble, kora, synths, a few choruses of birdsong and some inventive sound processing. The result was a jazz album – of sorts. There’s an emphasis on composition, and the birdsong elements inevitably remind us of Hermeto Pascoal from Brazil or the contemporary classical sounds of Olivier Messiaen – yes, it’s that kind of record. Guitarist Dave Okumu, pianist Nick Ramm and Peters himself – mostly on flute – solo around some beautifully subtle rhythms. Butterflies is based on the traditional Balinese tune Butterfly and includes elements of gamelan. Significantly, the producer here is eclectic composer, remixer and band leader Matthew Herbert whose own albums have often included sounds from all kinds of sources – including on Plat de Jour, the food industry… For a, er, taste of the music try An Empire of Coffee.
2. McCoy Tyner Quartet – Recorda Me from New York Reunion
Recorda Me is one of Neil’s favourite Joe Henderson compositions, and he’s here on this record with Tyner on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Al Foster on drums – what a quartet! This was recorded in 1991, some 28 years after Tyner and Henderson first recorded together on Henderson’s debut Blue Note record Page One in 1963. This record is an no-overdubbing all-tube amplification recording on the Chesky label – and it shows in the highly detailed sound. There’s a mix of standards and originals including Cole Porter’s What is This Thing Called Love? and Victor Young’s Beautiful Love. This is not Tyner at his most fiery or Henderson at his most squally but it’s great to hear this quartet together. Sadly not available on vinyl but you might be able to track down the CD.
3. Alice Coltrane – Crescent from Translinear Light
I think we all thought that there would never be another Alice Coltrane record after Transfiguration, recorded in in 1978. But – some 26 years later – Coltrane released what was to be her last album, Translinear Light. Coltrane’s son, saxophonist and composer Ravi, produced the record and plays saxophone on 5 of the 11 tracks. The rest of the band is pretty star-studded: Charlie Haden and James Genus appear on bass and Jack DeJohnette and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts are on drums. Alice Coltrane plays her signature Wurlitzer organ and piano. There’s real beauty on this record – the traditional Walk With Me is modal gospel and is a real highlight. There are also new readings of John Coltrane’s Leo and (our choice here) the deeply spiritual melody of Crescent. Translinear Light was a magnificent return to form – but it was sadly to be Alice Coltrane’s last record. One to revisit and remember.
4. Tohru Aizawa – Sacrament from Tachibana/Spiritual Jazz Vol. 8
The spiritual vibe is continued with this powerful slice of Japanese jazz, courtesy of the Jazzman label’s Spiritual Jazz series. Their 8th collection was a 4LP/2CD release and one of the highlights of this ongoing series. Tachibana was a rare record, even by Japanese standards. Initially, a private pressing by jazz enthusiast Yojiro Tachibana who wanted to make a recording in the venue he owned. As the excellent liner notes tell us, the band was three students – leader and pianist Tohru Aizawa was studying medicine at graduate school, while drummer Tetsuya Morimura and bassist Kohzo Watanabe were studying law. Saxophonist Kyoichiro Morimura (Tetsuo’s brother) was a teacher. The resulting music is surprisingly accomplished and a testimony to the adventurous jazz spirit of these four musicians. The Tachibana record was subsequently reissued on the BBE label in 2018 – you can find it here on Bandcamp – and another great track from the album, Dead Letter, featured on the first of the excellent J Jazz compilations Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969-84 – also highly recommended.
5. Tomasz Stańko – II (Suspended Variations) from Suspended Night
Neil’s selection ends with another tune played back in 2009, the lyrical II (Suspended Variations) from Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko. Stańko, who died in 2018, began working with this trio some ten years before the release of Suspended Night in 2004. Pianist Marcin Wasilewski went on to record several great records for the ECM label but he’s here at his most Bill Evans/Keith Jarrett-like supporting Slawomir Kurkiewicz on bass and Michal Miskiewicz on drums. There are ten Suspended Variations on the album, each of which offers their own inventive charms but – for Neil – the standout is the rhythmically compelling Variation II. This is a highly recommended record and – if you don’t know the work of Tomasz Stańko – a great place to start.
6. Steve Turre – The Spirits Up Above from The Spirits Up Above
Neil recognised that a tune from this album was played on the show in May 2013. The record has, sadly, probably gathered dust on Derek’s shelf ever since. This is undeserving and so it’s long overdue a revival. Steve Turre is a player of the trombone and seashells (see below), born to Mexican-American parents but brought up in the San Francisco area. He’s played with some significant people in the jazz and Latin worlds, they include: Ray Charles, Art Blakey, Dizzie Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Pharaoh Sanders, Max Roach, Horace Silver and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Phew! It was the latter who introduced him to seashells as an instrument and this 2004 album is made up of Kirk numbers except for one Turre original (One for Kirk). In the liner notes Turre writes that every time he played with Rahsaan he made the audience FEEL something and that Rahsaan’s spirit is alive. He’s still touching people through his music, and it still stands up. That observation still stands today. The musicians here include Vincent Herring, Dave Valentin, Mulgrew Miller and Buster Williams.
7. David Sanchez – Africa Y Las Americas from Sketches of Dreams
The African diaspora though the Americas is an area of great interest and concern to Grammy award-winning Puerto Rico-born saxophonist David Sanchez and this is reflected in the title of this selected tune Africa Y Las Americas. Like Steve Turre, he has worked with an impressive list of musicians from the jazz and Latin worlds and this 1995 album includes: the late Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Danilo Perez on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, Adam Cruz on drums, Milton Cardona and Jerry Gonzales on percussion. It is more jazz than Latin but a Latin sensibility is infused throughout. The sleeve notes refer to Sanchez playing straight ahead jazz but here he’s chosen to employ a more indigenous style – the folk element of his country. Africa Y Las Americas begins with prominent, but subtle, percussion to underpin the track but there’s also Sanchez and Roy Hargrove merging and inter-changing their sounds. Music of its time, but still relevant today.
8. David Murray Cuban Ensemble – Quizás, quizás, quizás from David Murray Cuban Ensemble Plays Nat King Cole
This album brings forth a number of surprises. To find saxophonist Davis Murray, with a reputation for the progressive and even the avant-garde, playing the songs of Nat King Cole may not be what you expect. To learn that Nat King Cole, who did not speak Spanish, recorded all these numbers is perhaps even more surprising. For Derek, to find this album on his shelves was also something of a surprise – but what is life without surprises? The tunes are taken from two albums that Nat King Cole recorded on 1958 and 1962 in Spanish and Portuguese. Cole had a huge following in South and Central America and his friend and manager Carlos Gastel suggested that to make such recordings was a way to acknowledge that audience. David Murray is clearly another Cole admirer as this album, released in 2011, testifies. He assembled a group of top Cuban musicians and in 2010 he recorded the tracks with this band in Buenos Aires, adding tango vocalist Daniel Melingo. Two months later he went to Portugal to add strings. This track (quizás meaning maybe or perhaps) was composed by Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés in the 1940s and includes the husky, after-hours voice of Daniel Melingo, who went to Spain to score films for Pedro Almodovar and returned to Argentina in the late 1990s, to promote tango. Many of our listeners may know the tune as Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps – recorded by many including Doris Day and Gregory Porter.
9. Michael Brecker – El Niño from Two Blocks From The Edge
Derek is almost ashamed that he has not played music by the late Michael Brecker for some time. The BBC Radio 3 jazz profile describes him as the most influential saxophonist in the post-Coltrane tradition – a view few would disagree with. He played with a variety of people and in a variety of styles from hard bop with Horace Silver to fusion with Billy Cobham and Steps Ahead, to pop/rock with James Taylor and the Brecker Brothers Band with trumpeter brother Randy Brecker. Their band was more likely to be played on a soul rather than jazz show and heard on the dance floor rather than in a jazz club. We are, however, pleased to report that we have squeezed one time, a tune of theirs into a Cosmic Jazz show. Like many of Derek’s selections this time there is more than a hint of Latin rhythms in the tune El Niño, written by pianist Joey Calderazzo. You can also find Don Alias on percussion providing some Latin textures and (again) Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts on drums. A great tune, with great artists – and something more that needs to be re-visited.
10. Rodney Kendrick – Gnawa In Paris from The Secrets of Rodney Kendrick
Derek has two albums by pianist Rodney Kendrick. They both deserve greater exposure. The Randy Weston tune Gnawa in Paris is on this 1993 Verve recording and reiterates so much that has been found in Derek’s selections and is what he certainly loves. We have here a leader who comes from a family of musicians, who has played with musicians from different styles – Abbey Lincoln, James Brown, George Clinton, Harold Melvin, Clark Terry, Frank Morgan, Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, George Benson and more. There is a statement of the African American diaspora, there is a solid dose of percussion (three percussionists in fact on this track – Chi Sharpe, Aeron Walker and Big Black) providing a festival of rhythm. But above all there is memorable, inspiring, improvised music. Rodney Kendrick takes a pounding lead on piano, Graham Haynes is on forceful and uplifting cornet, Houston Person on tenor saxophone, there is Tarus Mateen on bass along with those three percussionists. Derek has got the message – search through those shelves a bit more…
Neil is listening to…
- Rebecca Vasmant – Rooted feat. Paix and Emilie Boyd
- George Benson – Windsong
- Carl Allen – The Inchworm
- Michael Brecker – African Skies
- Sultan Stevenson – Unspeakable Happiness
- Mal Waldron and Terumasam Hino – Reminiscent Suite
- Emma Jean Thackray – Wanna Die
- Wayne Shorter/Milton Nascimento – From the Lonely Afternoons
- Purelink – In Circuits
- Donny Hathaway – Little Ghetto Boy