In this show we play tribute to one of the foremost artists in jazz – saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter – who died recently at the age of 89. Much has been written about him elsewhere but for both Neil and Derek, Shorter has been one of the most singular voices in jazz. A practising Buddhist, science fiction devotee and masterful improviser, the death of Wayne Shorter leaves a huge hole in the jazz world. This show is devoted entirely to his music.

While growing up in Newark, Wayne Shorter was given the nickname Mr Gone – an indication of his otherworldy air and subsequently the title of a Weather Report album that seemed to acknowledge his slow departure from the jazz supergroup that he had co-founded with Joe Zawinul in the early 1970s. As the excellent Guardian newspaper obituary from Richard Williams recognised, Shorter’s aura of cool detachment helped him to create a musical microclimate that was unique and immediately identifiable.

Unusually, Shorter had two unique and very different tones on both his principal instruments, the tenor and soprano saxophones. On tenor, the gruff, dark complexities were contrasted with the clean, piping clarity of his soprano. Both were immediately identifiable – and there are examples of each in our tribute show. But more than this, Shorter became recognised by many as the greatest living composer in jazz with a string of tunes that were to become modern jazz standards – perhaps none more so than Footprints. His music is often characterised by quirkily angled melodies that leaves space around the notes together with an improvising structure that emphasises subtlety rather than complexity. In another wonderfully evocative phrase, Richard Williams describes Shorter’s music as like a wraith of pale smoke through a door left ajar, curling gracefully around the musical furniture before evaporating as mysteriously as it had appeared, leaving an indelible afterimage.

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – Ping Pong from Roots and Herbs

All of this is apparent in the music we have selected for this show and we’ve included an iconic compositions from his early days with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers to his later quartet compositions. We begin with Ping Pong which Shorter wrote for Art Blakey. It’s a typical early Shorter tune – memorable, quirky and very stylish. Neil first heard it on an old New Musical Express jazz sampler cassette from the early 1980s and was immediately drawn to this perfect example of hard bop. Familiar with Shorter’s Weather Report compositions, this was the start of Neil’s journey back through the Shorter Blue Note catalogue. Shorter spent four years with the Jazz Messengers and, by the time he came to record his first solo album for Blue Note, he was beginning to become better known as both a composer and unique voice on the tenor saxophone. His run of eleven albums for the label between 1964 and 1970 is one of the most influential series of individual jazz albums from anyone in the jazz world and all titles are highly recommended.

Wayne Shorter – Speak No Evil and Infant Eyes from Speak No Evil

We’ve chosen two tunes – the first is the title track from Speak No Evil, recorded in 1966 and the third of those Blue Note albums. In his excellent tribute show on BBC6 radio, Gilles Peterson referred to it as his favourite jazz record and indeed every tune is a compositional masterpiece. The group Shorter assembled was perfect – Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. There’s a telepathic rapport with Herbie Hancock and, indeed, Richard Cook and Brian Morton in the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings call this by far, Shorter’s most satisfying record. Second up from those Blue Note years is Infant Eyes from the same album. This is one of Shorter’s most gorgeous tunes and has – again – become something of a contemporary jazz standard. There’s a lovely vocal version by Doug and Jean Carn(e) from those excellent Black Jazz reissues on the Real Gone label.

Wayne Shorter – 12th Century Carol from Alegria

Next is Shorter at his most lyrical – and this one is a soprano sax feature. The album Alegria was released in 2003 and features the quartet that was to form Shorter’s working group for almost the next twenty years. Shorter is on tenor and soprano saxes, Danilo Perez is on piano, and with John Patitucci on bass and Brian Blade on drums this incredibly accomplished quartet released some of the best music of Shorter’s long career. Derek’s choice from this album is as enigmatic as Wayne Shorter himself – a setting of an anonymous 12 century carol that is just beautiful.

Weather Report – Three Clowns from Black Market

We follow this with a first dive into the music of Weather Report, a group Neil was fortunate enough to see twice in two of their very different incarnations. Three Clowns (a typically cryptic Shorter title) comes from 1976’s Black Market, one of the group’s most satisfying records. This tune is rather dismissed by Cook and Morton but it’s actually an atmospheric vehicle for one of Shorter’s excursions with the Lyricon, an electronic wind instrument which had only been developed a few years previously and which allowed him to match the increasingly intriguing sounds being created by Joe Zawinul on his armoury of electronic keyboards. As almost always with Weather Report, the outcome is not bombastic and driven by a desire to impress but rather, the music is subtle, emotive and – above all – creative.

Weather Report – Plaza Real from Procession

The next tune is one that Shorter has revisited a number of times, including with his later quartet. Neil saw the group perform Plaza Real in a shockingly different version on Shorter’s live tour of 2003 but it actually first appeared on the Weather Report album Procession from 1983. Here Shorter is again on soprano saxophone and using that clear, piping lyrical tone that is so immediately distinctive. The whistling (probably by Joe Zawinul) and concertina (from percussionist José Rossy) is a neat touch. This band were all about subtlety. Unfortunately, the later years of Weather Report are characterised by the marginalisation of Shorter’s nuanced approach to composition and improvisation and if you’re a beginner with the group, the early records are the ones to go for.

Wayne Shorter with Milton Nascimento – Lilia from Native Dancer

In the mid-1970s, Shorter began to extend the Brazilian influence that had been apparent on his later Blue Note records and recorded essentially a duet album with singer Milton Nascimento. Gilles Peterson remembers borrowing Native Dancer from his local library and being enchanted by the combination – and Neil recalls very clearly buying the record on release in 1975 from the late lamented Sunshine Records in Oxford. Airto Moreira is on percussion on our choice Lilia and elsewhere on the album Shorter’s Blue Note pal Herbie Hancock is featured. Nascimento’s wordless vocals are featured along with some very fine concluding soprano from Shorter and with a fabulous groove and organ swirls from Wagner Tiso this is a magical tune.

Wayne Shorter Quartet –Joy Ryder from Beyond the Sound Barrier

As we bring this all too short tribute show to an end, we come to another tune that Shorter revisited with his late quartet – the composition Joy Ryder. This take is again very different from the tune’s first incarnation, on Shorter’s 1988 album with the same title. For comparison, check out that earlier version here with, incidentally, the late and great Geri Allen on piano and keys. Neil’s view is that these later Columbia records are really due for a re-evaluation: much dismissed at the time, they now come across as not just typical of the musical zeitgeist of the time (overdriven electronic drums, for example) but actually powerful musical statements by a master composer negotiating a new sound language. Bringing the tune forward to 2005 and Shorter’s version on the live quartet album Beyond the Sound Barrier. This is such a good record and shows Shorter at the height of his later powers, revisiting some of his best compositions. Will Layman of the online review blog Pop Matters, says Beyond the Sound Barrier does more than reinforce the marvel of Wayne Shorter’s return to brilliant, challenging acoustic jazz. This collection of concert recordings makes the argument that Wayne’s long hiatus served an important artistic purpose, On Sound Barrier, Wayne’s quartet plays in a fully interactive style that eschews individual “solos” almost completely. There is not a single track that follows the usual jazz format of melody-solos-melody. Every one of these performances is a thematic exploration resembling a conversation between four equal partners—but a musical conversation of such exquisite cohesion and explosive discovery that each track seems an impossibility of grace. It’s worth giving this quote in full because it really does encapsulate what Shorter was doing with this quartet and which Neil heard in that Barbican, London concert in 2011. Definitely go for this superb record and the next one which signalled Shorter’s return to the Blue Note label after 43 years. Appropriately called Without a Net, this is another very fine album. There’s another take on Plaza Real and an extended cover of Flying Down to Rio, the title song from a 1933 musical!

The Manhattan Project – Nefertiti from The Manhattan Project

We end the show with another return to a classic Shorter composition, Nefertiti. Originally, recorded by the Miles Davis Quintet of which Shorter was a key member in 1968, the composition is noted for its inversion of what usually happens in jazz. Here the horn section repeats the melody numerous times without individual solos while the rhythm section (Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums) improvises underneath, reversing their traditional role. You can hear that magisterial original take with Miles right here. Our version comes from an intriguing jazz supergroup project that involved Wayne Shorter, pianist Michel Petrucciani, keyboardist and synth player Gil Goldstein, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White. Called the Manhattan Project, they released just one album under this name in 1990 – and there’s a DVD of a live performance too.

And so that’s a dip into the extraordinary body of work created by Wayne Shorter. We’ve not had time to reflect on his last album – a 3 CD set titled Emanon which featured music for a chamber orchestra and live recordings from London in 2013. But that wasn’t all: the discs came with a lavishly produced graphic novel which reflected that lifelong interest in science fiction and satisfyingly brought Shorter’s career to a remarkable conclusion. We’ll always come back to this amazing music in future Cosmic Jazz shows, but for now this is where we end.

Ok – so it’s taken a while to get uploaded, but this is the second Cosmic Jazz live set helmed from one of Singapore’s premier record stores, The Analog Vault. With big thanks to Leon and Hannah from TAV who got this organised and supported on the day. The text below is an extended version of Neil’s mic comments from the show. Enjoy! Make sure you check this out on The Analog Vault Club site as well – lots more set photos and Youtube stuff there for you to explore. 

1. Contours– Balafon A from Contours EP (2020)

First up was a track that sounded like it came from Bali – but actually, it’s from the northwest of England. There’s a guy called Seth Sutton who is a percussionist, producer, instrument builder and painter whose band goes by the name Contours. This track uses the balafon – a wooden block instrument from west Africa – along with some gamelan instruments and Sutton’s homemade percussion. Experimenting with balafons and a gamelan alongside his homemade string and percussive instrumentation, then adding in delay and reverb pedals, resulted in a unique organic sound. The music was all recorded in a local house in Cumbria – a more remote part of the UK up in the far northwest. You might still be able to find a 12in EP or the cassette version on Bandcamp. We wanted a pretty chilled start to the show and this delivered – before we gently faded into some classic jazz-inflected rap…

2. Digable Planets – Appointment at the Fat Clinic – from Reachin’ (1993)

Now this one might be more familiar – or at least the sample should be. It was also used by Massive Attack on their Blue Lines album – and the sample is from US saxophonist Tom Scott – Sneakin’ in the Back. Here’s the Massive Attack’s sampling of the same tune on their Blue Lines track. Digable Planets were not as well-known as some of their rap contemporaries from the 90s like A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers and De La Soul but they were all about the same idea – presenting a more positive-minded, jazz-influenced sound. Like their neighbours, they used jazz samples behind socially conscious beats to send out a message. This one has deep lyrics about the evolution of jazz, no less! Fact check: Digable Planets were three people – Ishmael Butler, Craig Irving and Mary Ann Vieira – a rap trio with a woman at their centre!

3. Cantaloop – Flip Fantasia 12in single (1992)

So, still in the 90s for the next tune: Flip Fantasia is from 1992 and a product of the British jazz rap group Us3 – Rahsaan Kelly (doing the rap) and with Geoff Wilkinson and Mel Simpson producing. This is basically a big sample from Herbie Hancock’s Canteloupe Island – check out the original which comes from a 1964 Blue Note album, Empyrean Isles. The intro, by the way, is almost as famous as the sample – it’s from an Art Blakey album and it features Pee Wee Marquette, the MC at the Birdland club where Blakey and his Jazz Messengers played. Marquette’s squeaky voice calling Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, we have something special down here at Birdland this evening… has been used on several remix albums over the years – but go for the original Art Blakey records, recently reissued in the Blue Note classic series in two volumes.

4. Manu Dibango – Abele Dance 12in single (1984)

Now we go deeper into dance mode with a track from 1984. The sound may remind you of the classic Soul Makossa (as stolen by Michael Jackson!) because it’s from the same guy, Manu Dibango. I personally think this track Abele Dance is even better than Soul Makossa – it’s deeper and heavier and was a big club hit in its day. The industrial style typical of the time has worn well and the track certainly stands up today. Dibango was from Cameroon in Africa but – like many musicians from west and central Africa – he lived and worked in Paris for most of his life. The 12in single features two versions of Abele Dance – typical of the time, with the B side being a dubbier take. Dibango was sadly a victim of Covid – he died in 2020 – but he remains one of the most important musicians to bring the music of west Africa to a wider audience.

5. Dele Sosimi – Too Much Information (Laolu remix) 12in single (2015)

Still staying with Africa, but also the UK too, as Dele Sosimi is from Hackney, London but he joined Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80 band when he was just 16 – what a crazy responsibility that must have been! He then became musical director for Fela’s son Femi in his band Positive Force. Dele is still based in the UK and has recorded some brilliant records with his own band. This 12in single remix is still available on Discogs – a mint one will cost you around 85SGD! – but as an alternative go to Bandcamp and get the DL for just €2.50! The remixer of this track, Laolu, was born in Nigeria where his parents owned The Gallery – a jazz and soul club. After discovering the techno of Carl Craig and Derrick May he sold his sax and bought a drum machine! Now based in Geneva, he’s built a strong following in Europe – and for music check out this Fatoumata Diawara remix.

6. Tony Allen – When One Road Close (dub version) EP (1984)

And we faded into a second bit of classic afrobeat from the man who invented it – Tony Allen from Nigeria. There used to be a great African record shop in London called Sterns in the 1980s and this is where I tracked down this great EP. Originally on the label Earthworks (which doesn’t exist anymore either!) but reissued recently. You can now get a download or the vinyl reissue from Bandcamp – the home of so much great music online! In 1979 Allen decided to leave the Africa 70 band and move to London. NEPA refers to the Nigerian Electric Power Authority, but NEPA is here represented as Never Expect Power Always – because the power would keep cutting out! On the B side are two versions of the other track When One Road Close (Another one Go Open) – one regular and one more dub style –and that’s what we played. This is tighter than any Fela album and it really did influence Tony Allen’s music from this point on.

7. Willie Colon – Set Fire to Me (Jazzbo Latin version) 12in single (1986)

Ok – this is absolutely one of my favourite club tracks – it never fails! Much played in the 80s in those great New York clubs with DJs like Larry Levan and David Mancuso, I finally found my copy last year in a café in London which was selling a DJ’s collection – it was very lucky to see it in the wild like that. This is classic Latin house and comes from Fania superstar Willie Colon – the trombonist you hear in the music. I actually don’t know who created this 12in version – it says it’s produced by Willie Colon but I think is actually from celebrated NY engineer Bob Blank who created what was called the ‘mutant disco’ scene – left field remixes from artists outside the mainstream. I’m talking about Kid Creole, James Chance and Lizzy Mercier Descloux. You can hear the complete Mambo Nassau album here on Youtube, or go straight to the best musician who came out of the mutant disco scene – Kid Creole and his Coconuts – here’s the remix of I’m a Wonderful Thing, Baby. Dig those basslines!

8. Ron Trent – Sphere (feat. Jean Luc Ponty) from What Do the Stars Say To You (2022)

Is Ron Trent the godfather of Chicago House? Maybe. I’ve certainly long been a fan of his deep house sound but his new full length album is something of a departure. Guesting on this track is veteran jazz violinist Jean Luc Ponty, following on from the long-awaited release of an amazing track called In the Fast Lane that appeared on a 1989 album called Storytelling. You can still download from Bandcamp – but the 12in single is probably long gone now. Listen on good headphones – amazing! If you’re not familiar with Ron Trent’s deep House sound then try this treat – this collection of Trent’s music will keep you going for over three hours! You might even still be able to buy the six disc set somewhere – whatever, this is the best house music you’ll ever hear. And listen to the name checks on the track Prescription: Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Larry Levan, Tito Puente, Marvin Gaye, J Dilla et al. That’s a great roll call.

9. Miles Davis – Prelude from Agharta (1975)

Now – we need to introduce this track with some back story. Nearly 50 years ago, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and his new band rocked up at the Festival Hall in Osaka, Japan and played two all-out, no-holds-barred concerts in one day. Both were recorded by Columbia – known as Sony in Japan. The afternoon gig was released later in 1975 as the double-LP Agharta, with the evening set coming out a year later under the name Pangaea. The album titles are both significant – Agharta was the name given to the mythological city located at the centre of the earth and Pangea the ancient landmass that existed before the five continents we know today existed. It’s appropriate – this is massively primitive music that exists in its own unique space. There had never been music like this before and no one has managed to make anything sound like this since. For many people this is not jazz – they can listen to Kind of Blue but they can’t take this! But for me, this is the Miles that sends a shiver down my spine. At the time of these recordings Davis was in a bad state: a few years before he had broken both his hips in a horrific crash in his Lamborghini Miura and was addicted to both painkilling drugs and cocaine. These were to be the last recordings he made before he retired – and he didn’t play his trumpet again for another five years. But what about the music itself? It sounds chaotic but actually it’s tightly structured by Miles Davis himself who gave silent movement cues to the band or signalled when he wanted a change with chords on his electric organ – those are the stabs of sound you hear before the rhythm picks up again. The music is driven by the drummer Al Foster and the young bass player Michael Henderson, who Davis literally stole (didn’t ask permission at all) from Stevie Wonder’s band. On sax is Sonny Fortune (who had played with McCoy Tyner), on percussion is Mtumé and on spaced out guitars are Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas. The tune we played on the show is called Prelude – and I played just the first half of it… It’s actually based on the opening guitar riff from the Sly Stone tune Sing a Simple Song – check it out! I just love this music and I hope you’ll get to like it to. For more – and this isn’t an official Columbia reissue but it is from the Tokyo 1975 concerts – try this amazing take on the tune Ife.

10. Nils Petter Molvaer – Tløn from Khmer (1998)

So who might come close to that Miles Davis sound from the 1970s? Maybe this guy – Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer. This is his best album, released in 1998 on the ECM label – but it’s not very much like many ECM albums! There’s ambient sounds here but also – as on this track – a driving breakbeat-approach with heavy bass too. Soaring above this is Molvaer’s trumpet – very Miles-like here with the Harmon mute on the end to give that wispy sound. The electronic effects here are from a guitarist called Eivind Aarset – another Norwegian – and his own albums are worth looking out for. The album title and beautiful art is important here too  – Molvaer is referencing the Khmer civilisation which spread across much of south east Asia for over 600 years and created the remarkable Angkor in what is now northern Cambodia.

11. Four Tet – Love Cry 12in single (2009)

This is English remixer and solo performer Kieran Hebden – better known as Four Tet – and he’s been releasing music for nearly 20 years – including work with drummer Steve Reid, Burial and Radiohead front man, Thom Yorke. As a remixer, he’s worked with Madvillain, Beth Orton, Bonobo and The xx.  Hebden’s first albums were a great mix of hip hop beats, electronica, folk and jazz. Recommended ito get you started on his music would be the excellent Rounds from 2003. Like DJ Shadow and the Avalanches, Hebden often used hundreds of sample on his records– all beautifully knitted together in his home studio.  The key sample on Love Cry is – apparently – Brandy’s Almost Doesn’t Count and the track appears on Four Tet’s excellent 2010 album There Is Love In You. 

12. Rick Holmes – Remember to Remember 12in single (1981)

And so here’s where we end this dance-oriented set – chill out music from American radio DJ Rick Holmes and vibes hero Roy Ayers. This one of those roll call/name check records – as Hannah noted, like Stevie Wonder’s magnificent Sir Duke (which celebrates Basie, Miller, Satchmo/And king of all, Sir Duke) and, like Prescription, this one really works. Holmes was a Los Angeles DJ on KJLH FM (a station which was actually owned by Stevie Wonder!) but his very smooth voice was soon in demand on records too. Look out for any of the three records he made with alto sax player Cannonball Adderley, including the fantastic Soul of the Bible (1972). Incidentally, only two 12in records were ever released on the Gold Mine label – and they even got the label wrong on this one calling themselves Gold Mink Records…

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed the music everyone – let’s do it again soon!

Bonus – what Neil is listening to this week:

With the announcement of the recent death of legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, our regular listeners should check out the most recent Gilles Peterson show on BBC Radio 6 which included a good selection of his music. Our next Cosmic Jazz will include our own tribute to Sanders. Neil has chosen to focus on Miles Davis who died on 28 September 1991 – here’s more of that glorious 1970s electric stuff!

• Miles Davis – Ife ([972]
• Miles Davis – Ife [live Tokyo 1975]
• Miles Davis – On the Corner (unedited master) [1972/2007]
• Miles Davis – Runs the Voodoo Down [1970]
• Miles Davis – Black Satin/What If/Agharta Prelude Dub [1972/1997]

Cosmic Jazz this time round presents a much shorter show but one that pays tribute to two artists we have admired and revered since the start of the show, over fifteen years ago. Mtume and Lloyd McNeil both died earlier this month and we honour them with four wonderful tunes.

1.   Mtume – Yebo from Rebirth Cycle

We begin our tribute to drummer and percussionist James Mtume, by playing the sort of tune we often use to end the show. It’s not jazz but R’n’B, and it was a bonafide global chart hit in 1983 from a former jazz musician who ranged across the spectrum of contemporary, spiritual jazz and played on numerous records, including with Miles Davis at his most ‘out there’ electric phase in the 1970s. But Mtume was much more than an accomplished jazz sideman. no less. Born James Forman in 1928, Mtume was the son of saxophonist Jimmy Heath (who died last year at the age of 93) but he was raised by his stepfather – also James Forman, a saxophonist who was nicknamed ‘Hen Gates’ – which in turn became the name of a tune on Mtume’s hugely influential Alkebu-Lan (Land of the Blacks) album. For more on this, check out this Cosmic Jazz post from August this year. The drummer actually made his recorded debut with a remarkable lineup: the album Kawaida (1970) was credited to his uncle Albert Heath, but four of the five tracks were written by Mtume and the band included Herbie Hancock, Don Cherry and Buster Williams. This is a superb record and has been recently re-released – check out Maulana here.

Back to the 1970s, and when Mtume moved to New York be began to get ‘A list’ work, appearing on records by McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Lonnie Liston Smith and more with his writing becoming an ever more important feature – check out the Lonnie Liston Smith version of Mtume’s beautiful tune Sais (Egypt). Mtume was then signed by Miles Davis (who knew a good drummer when he saw one), performing and recording on landmark releases like On the Corner (1972), Get Up With It (1974) and the live in Japan records from 1975, Agharta and Pangaea. Mtume was also recording with his own ensembles – which brings us back to Alkebu-Lan (recorded live at the East Club in downtown Brooklyn in 1972), and the studio-based follow up Rebirth Cycle (recorded in 1974 but released three years later).  Alkebu-Lan is claimed as the original name for the continent of Africa and this important record is full of references – both spoken and musical – to African-American origins. The Umoja Ensemble was fairly large with 15 players – and result in this live recording is thick and rather muddy – but the message of a spiritual freedom is clear. The music is an amalgam of different jazz genres – you can hear call and response chants, big band jazz, be-bop and free jazz all meshed together in a kind of organised chaos. This is music to immerse yourself into and emerge with an understanding of the way in which Black consciousness and jazz have intertwined over the years. Rebirth Cycle (1977) is a better album in many ways: there’s an extended take on Sais and a remarkable lineup of musicians, including Mtume’s father Jimmy Heath, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and saxophonist Azar Lawrence. Yebo features basically the Miles Davis band of the time, along with Tawatha Agee on vocals. This not an easy record to find and it has never been reissued on either CD or vinyl – the only copy on offer on Discogs is priced at £300 – so Neil will be hanging on to his treasured copy!

2.   Miles Davis – Mtume from Live in Tokyo 1975 

In a 2018 interview with fellow percussionist Adam Rudolph, Mtume noted that when he was recruited to Miles’s band, Davis had said to him “You are my Tony” referring, of course, to drummer Tony Williams. Mtume was influential in extending the range of the hand drummer in a band: instead of providing just additional colour, the percussionist was literally at the centre of the stage – in live performance with Davis, the two musicians would play side by side. There are just a few Miles Davis compositions simply titled after the musicians that inspired them – John McLaughlin, Dual Mr Tillman Anthony – and Mtume. We’ve chosen a short version from the live in Japan concerts that produced the Agharta and Pangea albums but the original 15 minute version is here on Get Up With It. You can hear how the percussionist is at the centre of the music alongside the wah wah trumpet of Davis.

3.   Lloyd McNeil – Salvation Army from Treasures    

Flautist and more Lloyd McNeil (1935-2021) deserves recognition from Cosmic Jazz. He was not just a jazz artist much admired by us, but also a painter and friend of Picasso who designed his own album covers, a music anthropologist, a poet and a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. The album Treasures was released originally in 1980 on McNeil’s own Baobab label in New York. but – like five other of his albums – has been re-released in all formats by the British label Soul Jazz Records. Treasures combines deep spiritual jazz with Brazilian rhythms and melodies, McNeil having spent many years involved with Brazilian musicians. This album includes the Brazilian musicians Nana Vasconcelos, Portinho and Dom Salvador alongside American jazz artist, including Cecil McBee (who also appeared on Yebo above). The tune Salvation Army illustrates the fusion perfectly with the percussion of Vasconcelos to the fore alongside Lloyd McNeil’s jazz flute.

4.   The Lloyd McNeill Quartet – Home Rule from Washington Suite 

Washington Suite is another Lloyd McNeill album available through Soul Jazz Records – on coloured vinyl too! It is a deeply spiritual album, first released in 1970 on another of McNeil’s labels – Asha Records in Washington DC. Originally commissioned for the Capital Ballet Company, it’s another example of how McNeill was active in multiple spheres. He grew up in the years of the Civil Rights Movement and the ideals of the Movement are imbued in his music. He was one of a number of US jazz musicians who moved to France in the 1960s which is how, while playing music on the Mediterranean coast, he met Picasso. Over the years he played with a number of prominent musicians, including Nina Simone, Eric Dolphy, Mulatu Asatke and Sabu Martinez. McNeill’s global travels took him to Brazil and West Africa informing and influencing both his music and teaching. He was a man with an impressive range of abilities and achievements who used them to promote the ideals of many Black activists at the time of self-sufficiency and empowerment.

Cosmic Jazz this time includes some deep, highly serious and at times heavy music before moving to some more restrained sounds but keeping that spiritual feel and ending, as ever, with some boundary-stretching music.

1.  Eddie Harris – Free Speech from  Artist’s Choice the Eddie Harris Anthology/Free Speech   

The work of Chicago-born multi-instrumentalist, composer, activist and arranger Eddie Harris has had many admirers – and quite a few detractors too. Harris liked to experiment and try different things but his ventures into jazz-funk, rock – and even comedy – as well as his popularity with the young jazz-dancers back in the day,  were too much for many. He was also a best-selling jazz artist with Swiss Movement – the live recording of the performance he gave with Les McCann and apparently without any time to rehearse, at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival.  Deservedly one of the top-selling jazz records ever, Swiss Movement is two artists at an artistic peak – listen to the wonderful Compared to What in a rare piece of black and white video from the festival. Other Eddie Harris hits include the perennial favourite Listen Here and Freedom Jazz Dance, famously recorded by Miles Davis on the Miles Smiles album. The choice that impressively opens this show is the title tune from Harris’s Free Speech album of 1970: it is important music with an important message and Harris is playing both sax and trumpet. Do not listen to the detractors, listen to the music.

2.  William Parker – Raining on the Moon from Raining on the Moon    

The Village Voice named him “the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time” and DownBeat has called him “one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz”. We are talking here of bass player, composer and bandleader William Parker. He has also published conversations  he has had with other musicians and thinkers on spiritualism, race and culture and written and published poetry. Parker has released recently a mighty 10-disc record called Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World and he’s now released two trio albums, one of which should be on the next show. Raining on the Moon was recorded in 2001 and features Leena Conquest with earthy, strident vocals amongst the shrieks of sound emerging from the alto sax of Rob Brown. The music sounds like free jazz yet it’s also very accessible. In its review of the record Pop Matters provided an apt comment: “he proves once and for all that any divisions between mainstream jazz and its more avantgarde brethren need only be drawn in the minds of myopic listeners”. We second that.

3.  Rudolph Johnson – The Second Coming from The Second Coming 

There are more Black Jazz Records re-releases from Real Gone Music due in October. One of them is the 1973 free jazz album The Second Coming from saxophonist Rudolph Johnson. If you think from what we have played so far that Black Jazz Records was just about jazz/funk and genre stretching jazz, think again. It is a fiery, explosive piece that continued and contributed to the Coltrane legacy . It was his second album for Black Jazz so in that way the title is appropriate but the title also has a spiritual/messianic meaning and this interpretation is definitely appropriate to the music. Recorded by  the label’s key producer Gene Russell, The Second Coming is a stronger album than Johnson’s first for the label and is  deserving of a much wider audience than it received first time round.

4.  Walter Bishop Jr. –  N’dugu’s Prayer from Keeper of My Soul   

Also re-released in October on Black Jazz Records is this gem from Walter Bishop Jr. – another tune with a messianic/spiritual quality to match both the title of the tune and the title of the album: a spirituality owed in part to Walter Bishop’s studies with yogi Parmahansa Yogananda. Flautist/sax player Hubert Laws has a big part to play in the album but this tune features the pounding calls of vibraphonist  Woody Murray. The bass player is Gerald Brown who three years later found himself auditioning for Marvin Gaye before appearing on Gaye’s 1977 record Live at the London Palladium. You can hear him here on Distant Lover. Like all these re-releases from Black Jazz, Keeper of My Soul is available on vinyl with limited editions of coloured vinyl, exclusive to indie record stores. The remastered sound is good too and is faithful to the well recorded originals – and the new liner notes by Pat Thomas are a useful bonus. Get your copies now before they disappear!

5.  Nubya Garcia – Pace from SOURCE     

Neil has long recognised the significance of the music of Nubya Garcia. Derek was not so certain, but after hearing her live on BBC Radio 3 (and then two days later on BBC 4 television) at the Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, he was mightily impressed. Not so long ago the Proms were the reserve of the finest in classical music but now jazz gets an airing. This concert was a good illustration of why this is needed. The music was contemporary, refreshing and original drawing on a range of influences starting with reggae beats and ending with cumbia inflections with much in between. The quartet line-up of Garcia on sax, Joe Armon-Jones on keyboards and piano, Daniel Casimir on bass and Sam Jones on drums was augmented from time to time with trumpet and a trio of vocalists. The combinations worked so well, provided surprise and interest and fitted seamlessly into the Albert Hall setting. The concert is available via BBC Sounds (audio) and iPlayer (video). Look out too for a remix version of her album SOURCE, also due in October. At the Royal Albert Hall, Garcia included the tune Pace which – as she explained – was composed pre-pandemic to remind her to slow down from the frantic and work-heavy pace of life. The production on this album is very much a step up from Garcia’s first EPs: recorded with producer Kwes, whose credits include Solange and Bobby Womack, Garcia is pushed into new territory that really demonstrates her diversity.  It all remains firmly rooted in jazz but there’s a range of other influences here too – from the afore-mentioned cumbia through to Ethio-jazz and more. The thing is, this all works and so SOURCE comes highly recommended. A new single has already emerged from the scheduled remix album – a Kaidi Tatham take on La cumbia me esta llamando (feat. La Perla) and it’s excellent. Check it out here.

6.  Mtume and the Umoja Ensemble – Baba Hengates from  Alkebu-Lan (Land of the Blacks)

Percussionist, songwriter, and producer James Mtume might be best known for his R&B/disco classic Juicy Fruit from 1983 but his career has encompassed pioneering acoustic and electric avant-garde jazz, quiet storm classics and post-disco club hits, as well as compositions for film and television. Mtume was raised by pianist James ‘Hen Gates’ Forman (hence the title of this tune) but he is the biological son of saxophonist, Jimmy Heath – see the CJ show from 29 February 2020. After moving to California, Mtume joined the Black nationalist group US Organization whose founder Maulana Karenga created the Kwanzaa national holiday. The group was founded on what Karenga called the seven principles of African Heritage which he summarised as a communitarian philosophy: Unity (Umoja), Self-Determination (Kujichagulia), Collective Work and Responsibility (Ujima), Cooperative Economics (Ujamaa), Purpose (Nia), Creativity (Kuumba), and Faith (Imani).  Mtume made his recorded debut with something of a stellar lineup: the album Kawaida (1970) was credited to his uncle Albert Heath, but four of the five tracks were written by Mtume and the band included Herbie Hancock, Don Cherry and Buster Williams. Here’s Maulana from this recently re-released record. A move to New York saw Mtume credited on a slew of records by McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Lonnie Liston Smith and between 1971 and 1975 he performed and recorded with Miles Davis on landmark releases like On the Corner and the live in Japan records Agharta and Pangaea (the image above is with Miles in concert in 1973). Mtume was also recording with his own ensembles – which brings us back to Alkebu-Lan (recorded live at the East Club in downtown Brooklyn in 1972), and the studio-based follow up Rebirth Cycle (recorded in 1974 but released three years later).  Alkebu-Lan is claimed as the original name for the continent of Africa and this important record is full of references – both spoken and musical – to African-American origins. The Umoja Ensemble was fairly large with 15 players – and result in this live recording is thick and rather muddy – but the message of a spiritual freedom is clear. The music is an amalgam of different jazz genres – you can hear call and response chants, big band jazz, be-bop and free jazz all meshed together in a kind of organised chaos. This is music to immerse yourself into and emerge with an understanding of the way in which Black consciousness and jazz have intertwined over the years. For another take on Baba Hengates, try this excellent Buddy Terry version from his 1972 Pure Dynamite album for Bob Shad’s Mainstream label.

7.  Mark de Clive-Lowe – The Offering from Heritage I   

Heritage was was the first installment of a two-album set from pianist, composer and live remixer Mark de Clive-Lowe. With a Japanese and New Zealand background, these two records were the first time de Clive-Lowe had reflected his Japanese cultural roots in music, working in collaboration with his LA band – Josh Johnson, Teodross Avery, Brandon Eugene Owens, Brandon Combs and Carlos Niño from the Build An Ark collective. In addition to his own compositions, he interprets traditional Japanese folk songs, one on each album – with a delicate solo piano rendition of Akatombo on Heritage I. The material for both albums was recorded over three nights of live concerts at LA’s legendary Blue Whale jazz club in Little Tokyo with one follow up studio session where the live group sound is tweaked with  MdC-L’s arsenal of samplers, keyboards, drum machines and grand piano to create a personal take on both jazz and what Japan – and being Japanese – means to him. We think Heritage could well be de Clive-Lowe’s best work to date and recommend both records.

8.  Matt Carmichael – Where Will the River Flow from Where Will the River Flow    

Tenor saxophonist Matt Carmichael may be only just starting out in his career, but Where Will the River Flow is already a very assured debut. Just 21, Carmichael was a BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year in 2020 and on this fine record he draws on Scottish folk traditions in a similar way to another of our favourite young musicians from Scotland, Fergus McCreadie. Indeed, McCreadie appears on WWtRF and it’s clear that he and Carmichael work well together – check out this live take on Spey and their fast flowing unison playing. As with McCreadie’s most recent album, Cairn on Edition Records, Carmichael’s original compositions are strong on melody – particularly noticeable on our choice, the title track which again features McCreadie and a torrent of tumbling runs on piano. Thanks once more to Scots music promoter Rob Adams (Twitter: @rabjourno) for this introduction: Matt Carmichael is the real deal – an exciting talent and already an original voice.

9.  James Brandon Lewis – Fallen Flowers from Jesup Wagon  

We have been playing tunes from the James Brandon Lewis album Jesup Wagon, an record that celebrates and invokes the spirit of the artist, botanist, ecologist, aesthete, musician, teacher and seer Dr. George Washington Carver (1864-1943). “Many are the tears I have shed,” Carver wrote, “because I would break the roots or flowers of some of my pets while removing them from the ground.” When he could not preserve them, he drew them. The liner notes tell us that the track “Fallen Flowers compels us to submit to the beauty, complexity, vulnerability and unknowability of the natural world.” The tune ends with a poetic meditation on “life and death, on resilience in the face of colonial violence, on the regenerative and destructive qualities of water, on tears shed for fallen flowers.” It’s powerful, moving and evocative – and this is another recommended Cosmic Jazz new release.

10. Alfa Mist feat. Lex Amor – Mind the Gap from Bring Backs    

The tradition of the programme is to end with something that crosses boundaries and this week it comes via another 2021 release that we have featured on the show – namely Bring Backs from London-based self-taught musician/composer/producer Alfa Mist. Recorded in London with Jamie Leeming (guitar), Kaya Thomas-Dyke (bass and vocals), Jamie Houghton (drums), and Johnny Woodham (trumpet), the album is stitched together as a suite, one composition rolling into the next. As with Nubya Garcia’s album, there’s a melange of different musical and cultural influences at work here, but this record emphasises the hip hop and rap influences of Alfa Mist’s youth as he discovered jazz through the samples used by his favourite producers. “There’s no access to jazz where I’m from,” he says. “There’s no way I would have come to it without finding those hip-hop records and wanting to understand them,” The tune Mind the Gap uses the the London Tube warning at certain stations to evoke the gaps and the struggles in life “we all rise and decline.” It features Lex Amor, a British rapper with Nigerian roots who has her own release, Government Tropicana which you can pick up here on her Bandcamp site.

Neil is listening to:

• Major Force Productions – Essential Dub
• Julian Lage – Familiar Flower (live)
• Coastlines – East Dry River
• Ahmed Fakroun – Nisyan
• Serendip Quartet – Fighting My Own Demons (live)
• Thundercat – It Is What It Is (feat. Pedro Martins)
• Bruxas – Mountain Cruise
• Les McCann – The Harlem Buck Dance Strut
• Ahmad Jamal – Stolen Moments
• Lee Konitz – I Remember You

Brazilian music and music influenced by the country are key elements of this edition of Cosmic Jazz, but there is more too: the sounds of Trinidad and Tobago, a Kiwi in London and an essential Blue Note. More than this, there are links aplenty across the music – as indicated by the (see below) references throughout! Listen to the show by clicking on the Mixcloud button (top left or below):

1. Sivuca – Ain’t No Sunshine from Sivuca

We begin with a track that’s ironically rather sunny, and a perennial favourite – Sivuca’s take on the Bill Withers classic Ain’t No Sunshine. The self-titled Sivuca re-release from Real Gone Music may still be available in your local record store and, if you’re lucky, in purple or forest green vinyl. The gnomish Severino Dias de Oliveira (aka Sivuca) was a Brazilian virtuoso on accordion, guitar, and keyboards but it’s his singing style that’s so engaging. This album was originally released in 1973 on the Vanguard label and reissued for the first time last year. It’s worth searching for – there’s a great version of Edu Lobo’s classic Ponteio too (and see below).

2 and 3.  Raul De Souza Generations Band – Nethinha Aura/Passarim from Plenitude

Virtuoso trombonist and composer Raul De Souza was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1934 and has had a music career spanning six decades both in Brazil and the US. In his 20s he played with the likes of Sergio Mendes, Milton Nascimento, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. After moving to Los Angeles in 1973 his collaborators included Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Jack DeJohnette, Jaco Pastorius and Herbie Hancock. He has recently been working with a group of younger musicians who bring modern sounds and fresh energy to his new album Plenitude.  It is an intercontinental group that includes young European musicians alongside the now 86 year old De Souza. The band originally came together in 2017 for a Hamburg jazz festival and has developed a blend of funk with traditional and contemporary Brazilian jazz. The album includes compositions by De Souza, George Duke, Chico Buarque, Airto Moreira and a take on Wayne Shorter’s Beauty and the Beast (more see below).

4.  Joe Barbieri feat. Alberto Massico  – Vedi Napoli E Poi Canta from Tratto Da Una Storia Vera   

You can hear Brazilian influences in the work of Naples-based Italian jazz singer-songwriter Joe Barbieri, whose music we like here at Cosmic Jazz. Translated into English, the album title means ‘Based On A True Story’. Barbieri has created his true story in a personal record based around  great songs that are both richly diverse and deeply intimate. With thirty years of a life as artist and musician there are plenty of stories to tell. The album was released back in April of this year and was preceded by the upbeat single Promemoria which we have already played and enjoyed on the show. Barbieri says “The truth is a treasure chest that is difficult to unlock,” but he’s certainly opened the box on this new record.

5. Da Lata – Jungle Kitten from Jungle Kitten/Asking Eyes

Da Lata (muti-instrumentalist and producer Chris Franck and DJ Patrick Forge) return with a 12in cover of the underground classic Jungle Kitten by Manfredo Fest, featuring Kaidi Tatham on synths. It’s a rare thing, but this version really does improve on the original – check that out here. Previous albums by De Lata include the excellent debut Songs from the Tin (2000) and Serious (2003). Their take on Ponteio was released by Far Out Recordings back in 1998 appearing on the excellent Brazilian Love Affair 2 compilation and the corresponding Love Affair 3 also included a De Lata take on Os Escravos de Jo (Jo’s Slaves), a Milton Nascimento/Fernando Brant composition. It’s worth remembering that Brazil was the last country in the so-called developed world to outlaw slavery (in 1888), having trafficked more than five million slaves over the centuries.  Even today, most African-Brazilians live as second-class citizens, working in service industries that perpetuate their relative poverty while their white counterparts are afforded more opportunities through education and work. It’s a dark legacy and one that is often explored in Brazilian music by artists such as Milton Nascimento and Jorge Ben. The image below shows the enslaved on a fazenda (coffee plantation) in 1885. This excellent Red Bull Music feature is a good introduction to this influence.

6. Milton Nascimento – Ponta de Areio (Epilogo) from Ultimo Trem

Speaking of Milton Nascimento, this beautiful tune is another Brazilian  classic and appears in this version on Nascimento’s Ultimo Trem – a concept album and the soundtrack to a 1981 ballet. Ultimo Trem (or Last Train) deals with the closing of a railroad line connecting the mining communities within the Minas Gerais state – where Nascimento grew up – to the coastal urban centres of Rio and São Paulo. Pianists Wagner Tiso and João Donato both appear on Minas, and vocalist Naná Caymmi is just exquisite on Ponta de Areia, named for the last stop on the train line. There are some train-whistle effects and some spoken-word narration, but really the record is a collection of gorgeous vocals and Brazilian folk melodies. Nascimento and saxophonist Wayne Shorter (see below again) collaborated on the excellent Native Dancer which includes another version of Ponta de Areia. Neil first heard (and bought) this record on its release in 1975 and it’s been a favourite on his turntable ever since. Interestingly, the normally very reliable Penguin Guide to Jazz got their review of the record completely wrong, calling it “a bland samba setting which does more to highlight Nascimento’s vague and uncommitted vocal delivery than the leader’s saxophone playing”! Don’t be influenced by this – the album is just as essential as Shorter’s Juju (see below once more).

7. Myele Manzanza – Portobello Superhero from Crisis & Opportunity Vol 1 – London

New Zealand drummer Myele Manzanza is a jazz artist who dissolves the borders between modern jazz and electronic beat production. He’s previously released three solo albums and racked up tours and collaborations with Jordan Rakei, Theo Parrish, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Recloose and Amp Fiddler amongst others. His base is now London and he’s performed at both The Jazz Café and Ronnie Scott’s. Crisis & Opportunity’ Vol.1 – London features young London based talent including Ashley Henry (piano), James Copus (trumpet), George Crowley (tenor saxophone), Benjamin Muralt (bass) with additional contributions from fellow New Zealander Mark de Clive-Lowe (synths).

8.  Anthony Joseph – Calling England Home from The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for their Lives   

Anthony Joseph is an award winning Trinidad-born poet, novelist, academic and musician. He is the author of four poetry collections and three novels including the 2018 novel Kitch: A Fictional Biography of a Calypso Icon detailing the life and times of Lord Kitchener – calypso performer, passenger on the Empire Windrush and writer and performer of London Is the Place for Me. Joseph has released seven critically acclaimed records, including his most recent The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running For Their Lives, the title a quote from fellow Trinidadian C L R James’ Black Jacobins, a play about the Haitian revolution. This new 2021 record is a historical interrogation as searing as it is sentimental, in which Joseph details his own struggles along with the tribulations of those who came before him. Ambitious indeed, but the result is a cohesive, forward-looking jazz record that records both crushing oppression and real hope for change. Nowhere is this clearer than on Calling England Home, where Joseph recounts different stories of immigrants who arrived in England at different times. Each person, he says, had a difficult relationship with the idea that England was their home. The haunting instrumentation reflects this with saxophonists Jason Yarde, Colin Webster, and Shabaka Hutchings playing over the powerful rhythm section and Joseph manipulating his voice as he details the experiences of his characters – Black and been here since 1949, I’ve lived here longer than home and How long do you have to live in a place/Before you can call it ‘home’? As well as an obvious link to Barbadian poet Kamau Brathwaite, Joseph calls up the spirit of Gil Scott Heron on tracks like Swing Praxis and The Gift and indeed Rod Youngs, the drummer on these tracks, collaborated with Gil Scott Heron on his excellent Spirits album – the title track an interpretation of Coltrane’s Spiritual, included here in the epic live version from the Village Vanguard.

9. Anthony Joseph – Milligan (The Ocean) from People of the Sun   

It made sense to include a track from Joseph’s previous album, 2018’s People of the Sun. Joseph is now London-based, but for this record he returned to Trinidad and recorded the album with local Port of Spain musicians.  Rather than jazz, the sounds here are very much of the steelpan, alongside more R&B and soul overtones although UK saxophonist Jason Yarde also appears. Along with longtime cohorts bassist Andrew John and drummer David Bitan, the Ibis String Ensemble add a further richness to some tracks including Milligan (The Ocean) – itself a kind of magic realist poetic narrative about Milligan and a volcanic eruption. Like all of Joseph’s lyrics there’s a poetic sensibility here that bears repeated listening.

10. Jazzmeia Horn – Free Your Mind from Love & Liberation 

Jazzmeia Horn has been busy during lockdown with an online presence and it seemed time to return to her music. Besides, a tune called Free Your Mind from an record entitled Love & Liberation seemed to be an appropriate  way to follow Anthony Joseph. This album, her second, was released in 2020 and contains some original compositions, including Free Your Mind, as opposed to her first album A Social Call released in 2017 which included interpretations of classic tunes. Derek has enjoyed both albums. Horn was born in Dallas, Texas but in 2009 moved to New York, establishing a reputation there as a dynamic singer before her breakthrough as the winner of the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition. Both albums received Grammy nominations, and undoubtedly Horn is a singer to watch.

11. Alfa Mist – Run Outs from Bring Backs  

The new Alfa Mist album Bring Backs is a self-written and produced album from the UK producer and self taught pianist who has reached out from his hip-hop background to explore jazz. He has followed his own path over five years to emerge as a distinct talent from among the burgeoning London jazz scene. The album Bring Backs is his most detailed exploration of his London upbringing in musical form. Perhaps the raps, which form an important part of this story,  may not appeal to some jazz listeners but there are instrumental tunes too. Bring Backs was recorded with a core band of long-time collaborators. including Jamie Leeming (guitar), Kaya Thomas-Dyke (bass and vocals), with Jamie Houghton on drums and Johnny Woodham on trumpet.

12. Artemis – Goddess of the Hunt from Artemis  

Artemis is a jazz supergroup with a debut Blue Note album released last year and featured on several previous Cosmic Jazz shows. Their musical director is pianist Renee Rosnes and the group includes also clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Alison Miller and vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant. They named themselves after the Greek goddess Artemis, the daughter of Zeus and Leto, the twin sister of Apollo, the patron saint and protector of young girls and the goddess of hunting, wild nature and chastity. Their album has been a widely acclaimed, as was their performance at the 2018 Newport Jazz Festival – and it’s a recommended buy on vinyl, CD or download.

13. Wayne Shorter – Juju from Juju 

Recent shows have ended with tunes that Derek has classified as ‘jazzy not jazz’ but there was no need to end the show like that this week, as much of the programme confidently veered in that direction. Artemis and Wayne Shorter put that process in reverse by ending Cosmic Jazz with tunes that are solidly jazz. The choice of Wayne Shorter was inspired by what had gone before on the show – particularly the Raul De Souza album, which includes both a short De Souza dedication To Wayne and a Wayne Shorter composition Beauty and the Beast. It was appropriate, therefore, to end the show with the man himself. Shorter’s second album for Blue Note, Juju was the first to showcase both his compositional talents and his developing personal style. Although his backing band here are Coltrane’s then rhythm section (Elvin Jones on drums, Reggie Workman on bass and McCoy Tyner on piano) this is very much Shorter’s album and a clear indication of the direction he would take, both in his work with Miles Davis and string of superlative records for Blue Note. From the African-influenced title track (with its short, hypnotic, repetitive phrases) to the mesmerising interplay between Tyner and Shorter on Mahjong, the album (which is all Shorter originals) is full of ideas that draws on the many influences that make Shorter probably the foremost composer in modern jazz. Incidentally, Shorter’s Beauty and the Beast appeared on the aforementioned Native Dancer record making a fitting end to the many links in this edition of Cosmic Jazz. More great music soon…

Derek is listening to….

• Jon Batiste – Freedom
• Miles Davis – Miles
• The Mighty Sparrow – Memories
• Lord Kitchener – Sugar Bum Bum
• Gilberto Gil – Todo Menina Baiana