Nov 16, 2015 | jazz
To open the first set this past Sunday, we played the title cut from a team effort LP by pianist John Lewis and French guitarist Sacha Distel, “Afternoon In Paris” on Atlantic Records. The twenty-two year-old Distel plays alongside his compatriots, tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen, himself only nineteen at the time and soon to join Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers on their European tour, and bassist Pierre Michelot, who played for years with the likes of Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon and countless others. On drums is the great Connie Kay, Lewis’ partner in The Modern Jazz Quartet. The title cut, clocking in at just over nine minutes, is a beauty, with plenty room for the players to stretch out and stroll along the River Seine. You can listen to it here.
Nov 9, 2015 | jazz
For the evening set Achim played “Ballad II” from Kikuchi’s 2012 album “Sunrise” on ECM Records. Thom Jurek of Allmusic.com writes of Kikuchi’s playing on the album: “[He] showcases an approach to the form that is mysterious, intuitive, and purposely unsystematic. Key changes and slight tempo variations occur suddenly, and then vanish as if their appeal has been exhausted, only to return at a later time — or not. Kikuchi‘s touch reveals no hesitation in his ideas. His harmonic statements are instinctive, canny, sometimes spare, sometimes subtly dissonant, but always compelling; they never force their way.”
Nov 9, 2015 | jazz
Too often the lines drawn between different genres of music are used as walls. And surely a jazz show can’t play country music, right? We disagree, and a record like this one shows why. Just as in jazz, truly great bluegrass musicians are almost always truly great improvisers – a song is just a starting point for infinite directions. This 1975 LP on Chicago’s too-short-lived label Flying Fish Records was recorded in Nashville with some of the great players of the time: Norman Blake, Tut Taylor, Vassar Clements – who often collaborated with Jerry Garcia, and of course, the standout name here to any jazzhead, Dave Holland on bass. Sam spun the Holland-led improvisational workout “Sauerkraut ‘n Solar Energy,” a long, improvised cut that builds on Holland’s thumping, swinging blues walk.
Nov 2, 2015 | jazz
Yesterday on the Sunday Jazz Show we spun an epic burner from volume two of the legendary recordings by the Eric Dolphy-Booker Little Quintet; a band that “set the jazz world on it’s collective ear” in 1961. The 17-minute workout “Aggression” is a fantastic example of the contrasting styles of Dolphy’s burning, searching playing, here on bass clarinet, juxtaposed with Little’s rapid-fire, yet smooth and sophisticated trumpet. Held in check by a stunning rhythm section of Mal Waldron on piano, comping and keeping the peace, along with Richard Davis on bass and Ed Blackwell on drums. If you missed it – you can check it out on youtube here.
