Garding the Sound Barrier, then popping the Cherry.

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 25 April
5pm - J to Z

Checking RT and the site link for content, one comes up with a blank.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hms2

12midnight - Freeness
British jazz pianist Robert Mitchell shares the mental preparations process he went through for his forthcoming album, a 37-minute solo performance dedicated to American pianist Cecil Taylor (1929-2018) and recorded at the Jazz Café in London. Also, Corey Mwamba shares new music from the American experimental jazz vocalist Patty Waters and there's a performance by Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra recorded last July at the Molde International Festival in Norway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hms6

Sun 26 April
4pm - Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton with recordings by Benny Goodman, Ben Webster, the Bad Plus and others.

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

Fri 1 May
11pm - Late Junction includes:
[..] a wild performance by trumpeter Don Cherry with the late Krzystof Penderecki.

They're not Poles apart..........

[Ian Thumwood]

J-Z features a session from Kit Downes' living room according to the website and is in conjunction with his bass-playing partner. The programme also mentions his collaboration with folk musicians and his work on ECM. Got to say that I am not a fan of jazz / woolly jumper crossovers , having lost my appetite for this when ECM started to be fixated with those Norwegian fiddle players. It is uneasy territory for me. Some musicians as diverse as Frederick Delius, Bela Bartok, Leo Janacek and John Surman always seems to have come up trumps when utilising folk material and part of me appreciates the social history context of folk music. Regardless of the fact that there can be improvisation on folk music, there has always been a side of it which makes me uncomfortable (not just back-faced Morris dancers) and the attempts to make it "respectable" in the hands of composers like Britten have always seemed ridiculous to my ears.

I don't know a lot about Kit Downes. I think I may have seen him perform at some point. The ECM recording with the church organ was featured on Jazz Line Up several years ago and left me cold. His resume seems to have more in kin with Classical Music than jazz. I would not be expecting him to heard in a Hard Bop context.

[CGR]

J-Z features a session from Kit Downes' living room according to the website and is in conjunction with his bass-playing partner. The programme also mentions his collaboration with folk musicians and his work on ECM. Got to say that I am not a fan of jazz / woolly jumper crossovers , having lost my appetite for this when ECM started to be fixated with those Norwegian fiddle players. It is uneasy territory for me. Some musicians as diverse as Frederick Delius, Bela Bartok, Leo Janacek and John Surman always seems to have come up trumps when utilising folk material and part of me appreciates the social history context of folk music. Regardless of the fact that there can be improvisation on folk music, there has always been a side of it which makes me uncomfortable (not just back-faced Morris dancers) and the attempts to make it "respectable" in the hands of composers like Britten have always seemed ridiculous to my ears.

I don't know a lot about Kit Downes. I think I may have seen him perform at some point. The ECM recording with the church organ was featured on Jazz Line Up several years ago and left me cold. His resume seems to have more in kin with Classical Music than jazz. I would not be expecting him to heard in a Hard Bop context.

I always loved the jazz/folk/blues combination of Pentangle. But that may be my age and my rose-tinted memories of the early 70s, long hair, flared jeans, pot & cheap red wine at University.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Johnny Griffin - "Black is the colour of my true love's hair", from "Plays the Kerry Dancers and other FOLK Songs" (Riverside 1960s). A most unpromising album title, but it is a joy, with some marvelous playing by all... Barry Harris, Ron Carter, Ben Riley...

http://youtu.be/GZzI9b3bU5g

[Alyn_Shipton]

Ian, Kit Downes is a fine jazz musician, and was recently (end of Jan) made a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music at a ceremony that also marked Kenny Wheeler's 90th with a concert featuring Stan Sulzmann, Norma Winstone, Evan Parker and the students. The interview about his ECM organ solo (Obsidian) was on Jazz Now, as were two full length sessions on which he played. One of them featured (briefly) in this video clip: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p054rggm
I played a track from his new album Dreamlife of Debris on JRR in January. Kit was also a member of the Anglo-French Primitive London band that was recorded at the Hare and Hounds in Birmingham for Jazz Now. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04x127h/p04x1125

[Alyn_Shipton]

Oh and BN for Pentangle fans... https://vimeo.com/264241911
I knew John from while I was still at school...

[Serial_Apologist]

BTW it's Tony Hymas on the keys on the Dankworth track from '73 on tomorrow's JRR - not Tony Hyams. Understandable though the typo is I don't imagine Tony might be thought possibly to be a relative of Harry Hyams, one-time owner of Centrepoint, the West End's most famous skyscraper.

Oh and btw I am in complete agreement in Alyn's description of Kit Downes - one of the finest of the post-2000 generation to emerge, and a thoroughly nice, quietly spoken young man, as an aunt of mine would have once said.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"A thoroughly nice, quietly spoken young man". My mother said that about Billy Fury ("and lovely manners") after he carried a tray of tea over to her on Great Yarmouth pier c. 1960. Just before he went on stage with his "rockin", striking matches on his cowboy boots for dramatic effect in "Wondrous Place". Who needed light shows....

[Quarky]

Despite Kit Downes' top billing for J to Z, we got perhaps only 10 minutes of his music - 3 tracks out of 17. Where's the logic in that?

"For the first in a new series of J to Z Home Sessions, Julian Joseph presents a collaboration from pianist Kit Downes and bassist Ruth Goller, recorded in their front room. Kit Downes is one of the UK's most highly regarded young pianists,....."

[Serial_Apologist]

Despite Kit Downes' top billing for J to Z, we got perhaps only 10 minutes of his music - 3 tracks out of 17. Where's the logic in that?

"For the first in a new series of J to Z Home Sessions, Julian Joseph presents a collaboration from pianist Kit Downes and bassist Ruth Goller, recorded in their front room. Kit Downes is one of the UK's most highly regarded young pianists,....."

I think Julian mentioned more forthcoming tracks from that duo coming up on Freeness? Time to pack up your troubles in your young Kit Downes and ,,.

[Old Grumpy]

Time to pack up your troubles in your young Kit Downes and ,,.

Sharp as ever, even at 23.12, eh, S_A

As you imply, what's the use of worryin' (you can perhaps tell that I've been catching [up with] the Coronavirus thread...)


OG

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Excellent JRR today. The Marty Paich/Jack Sheldon track ("Jazz Picasso" is a great album) and all the rest. Perfect. BN. No, just remembered the Pat Boone track! Deduct ten points! Pat Boone?

[Quarky]

There was something about the Jimmy Giuffre track in JRR that struck a deep chord in my memory - that's the way to play a tenor sax . On enquiring my memory further, it must have been the influence of Sonny Rollins.

.......But Robert Mitchell on Freeness is the real deal.......

[Ian Thumwood]

Excellent JRR today. The Marty Paich/Jack Sheldon track ("Jazz Picasso" is a great album) and all the rest. Perfect. BN. No, just remembered the Pat Boone track! Deduct ten points! Pat Boone?

Interesting reflections upon Jack Sheldon by Ken Peplowksi…

https://jazztimes.com/features/tributes-and-obituaries/ken-peplowski-remembers-jack-sheldon/

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Yes, thanks for that. There's a long filmed interview with Jack Sheldon on YouTube, I think for a jazz archive somewhere. And as that piece says, he was constantly trying to improve and, I think, taking advice on trumpet technicalities, technique & tone. His humour however was pretty "broad" and I imagine that could really irritate after a while. But I do like his playing particularly some of the earlier stuff with Pepper and Curtis Counce. He sometimes got himself into places that he just about got out of, which added to the interest.