I seem to recall playing the first two tunes back to back on The Cosmic Jam way, way back in the first year or two of my days there, when Kiss FM was still a pirate; Larry Willis with a very nice take on a Bacharach/ David tune, and Eddie Harris' later recording of the tune his good friend Charles Stepney wrote for him. As this was recorded after Stepney passed away I feel it has something of the lament about it. "Peaceful" is the title track from an album by Dick McGarvin I discovered in an Osaka record store last year, the Gabor Szabo track is from "Dreams" abeguilingly beautiful record that is very dear to me. "Wine Dark Lullaby" comes from "Greek Variations" one of those stupidly rare British jazz albums with compositions from Neil Ardley, Don Rendell and in this case Ian Carr. Following this Steve Grossman's "Libra Rising" borrows much of it's form and bass-line from Pharoah's "The Creator Has A Masterplan", a classic Trane disciple, Grossman's blowing is emotive throughout. Cullen Knight's A'keem has a lovely theme and a classic loose," independent" feel to the playing, big thanks to Nick The Record for turning me on to this some time ago. Steve Kuhn's "Trance' does exactly what it should, again a fantastic album with a couple of killer jazz-dance cuts as well as this ethereal masterpiece. "The Peacemaker" is the title track from Harold Land's awesome album for Cadet with Bobby Hutcherson shining through with some lovely vibes, Chico Freeman's "Peaceful Heart, Gentle Spirit" is testament to the fact there was some good jazz made in the eighties! Ahmad Jamal is just a pure genius of the piano, with an amazing string arrangement, "Death And Resurrection" never fails to live up to it's title. Finally Jack McDuff, with a subtly funky version of Trane's "Naima" proves that it's impossible to make a duff (scuse the pun) version of this legendary tune.
Saturday 6 March 2010
Spontaneous Mellow
So about time too, the first podcast from this website, with a very mellow excursion into the vinyl vault, horizontal,chilled, and just the tonic for the over-stressed. Just prior to my imminent trip back to London, I'm enjoying the Okinawan "young summer' as they call it, 27c today! So maybe that accounts for the mellow selection.
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