Downes sides and Challengers

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 2 May
5pm - J to Z
Kevin Le Gendre with the finest classic and new jazz, today featuring an exclusive session from altoist Lakecia Benjamin, recorded at her home in New York. Benjamin also shares music that has inspired her, from Charles Mingus to Clark Terry.

Never even heard of her..........Actually, I think she may have been featured hereabouts before?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hpv7

Before mentioning Freeness, May I recommend tenor and soprano saxophonist John Butcher - the last ever saxophonist of the late John Stevens's Spontaneous Music Ensemble - who features in trio with that very fine bassist John Edwards, whose phenomenal straight out of the bag playing can cover anything from walking basslines to ersatz-electronic sounds and tacheiste histrionics, and similarly wide-ranging drummer Mark Sanders, in what will presumably be some free improvisation, these guys' speciality. That's on The New Music Show, along with other wonderful, if less jazz-related stuff, commencing at 10pm. John Edwards's partner, the US-born saxophonist Caroline Kraabel, is featured in Freeness tonight. As Fred said, "There will be Kraabel ahead" - but shhhhh - keep that under your (top) hat.

12midnight - Freeness
Corey Mwamba presents improvisers' responses to social distancing. Saxophonist Caroline Kraabel performs a solo piece and there's other remote music-making from Kit Downes on piano, cellist Lucy Railton, bassist Petter Eldh and saxophonist Tom Challenger. Plus a gig from gyil* player Bex Burch and her band Vula Viel, recorded in March.

The gyil* is a wooden xylophone from west Africa: this was recorded at Café Oto, it says on the link below, which is worth checking out for details and the lovely photo showing a young woman walking through a picturesque alley flanked by mediaeval buildings. Oh, and thanks to RT for spelling "improvisers" the correct way: unlike care workers they don't have to improv vizors.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hvpf

Sun 3 May
4pm - Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton with requests for recordings by Merry Julligan, Dials Mavis and Foo Jokes.

I thought maybe we could do with a foo of those in these times.

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

[Ian Thumwood]

I am pretty sure that one of Lakecia Benjamin's records was played on J-Z earlier in the year when I was coming back from a football match. Her resume includes a lot of funk and studio work although she started her career with some pretty heavyweight musicians such as Reggie Workman, David Murray, Clark Terry and James Blood Ulmer.

[Alyn_Shipton]

Bex Birch - as in Freeness - was a guest on Jazz Now. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05gsww5 You can hear the clip of her on the gyil.

[Serial_Apologist]

I have to say I enjoyed much of today's J to Z - including the track from Lakecia Benjamin's new album, though not so much her homemade version of My Favorite Things. From memory this was the second time only somebody has requested something from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring - I recall Mike Gibbs doing so several years ago, and commenting that he wished he had the ability to orchestrate as well as that, and me thinking, well how many can?!

[Ian Thumwood]

I see Fred Hersch is on J-Z next week. He is a pianist that it took me a long while to appreciate. When I first heard him I felt that he was extremely conservative and was not particularly impressed. It was hard for me to initially understand why he got so much praise. I would have to say that he is so opinionated that I find him difficult to warm to in interviews, to the extent that it does put up a big barrier to appreciating his music. I suppose he is the direct opposite of someone like Herbie Hancock who seems to be more appreciative and tolerant of a wider range of music. That said, I have two records by FH which reveal him to be someone who is a really discerning soloist. I gave the duet album with Bill Frisell as spin yesterday as I had not played it for years. At the time, it struck me as being one of the best albums of the 1990s and was a rare example of Frisell in a straight ahead context. I also have a solo disc he recorded.

Initially I saw him coming from the same approach as players like Bill Evans but there is a lot of Monk in his playing too. Sometimes I feel he can be a bit serious yet the duo album with Frisell is actually full of mischief and hugely entertaining. I don't think that there are many players who share his touch at the keyboard and I am always struck how precise he is with getting in to the zone with the music. He has also mentored a lot of the younger generation of musicians too. All in all, I appreciate his playing just as long as I do not have to listen to him voice his opinions - a bit like Jarrett in that respect although I think the most opinionated and precocious pianist I am aware of is Tigran Hamasyan who takes things to another level. Quite surprised that he was not punched when he gave a workshop in Vienne several years back. There were probably students and fellow teachers probably queuing up in that respect.

[Old Grumpy]

I have to say I enjoyed much of today's J to Z - including the track from Lakecia Benjamin's new album, though not so much her homemade version of My Favorite Things.

Favourite Things, surely...

...certain standards have to be maintained, even in a time of crisis.

BBC Sounds has the correct spelling.

OG

[Serial_Apologist]

Favourite Things, surely...

...certain standards have to be maintained, even in a time of crisis.

BBC Sounds has the correct spelling.

OG

Yes - I changed it from the British spelling to comply with the American album title's. Sometimes we all just have to go along with things American.

[Old Grumpy]

Yes - I changed it from the British spelling to comply with the American album title's. Sometimes we all just have to go along with things American.

English, Trumped by American, eh?

OG

[Alyn_Shipton]

Given Ian's comments on Fred Hersch, I've always liked his work, and remember him touring here with Norma Winstone. I've followed his career since the days of Impressions (he did a great interview with me about his Monk album, in which I certainly didn't find him offputtingly irritating) and we invited him on Jazz Now a couple of times - once to talk to Al about his autobiography and once in this trio set: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g4flr I wonder how his home session will compare with that lovely solo album he brought out a couple of years ago called Open Book? Look forward to hearing it.
And as for Tigran - a really nice person - did a pre-concert talk with him at the QEH before his 2013 London Jazz festival concert and he was engaging and funny - had a lot to say about playing solo piano, and then did a band set complete with light show and smoke machine...!

[Serial_Apologist]

Sun 3 May
4pm - Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton with requests for recordings by Merry Julligan, Dials Mavis and Foo Jokes.

I thought maybe we could do with a foo of those in these times.

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

Artist Chris Barber

Title The Mountains of Mourne

Composer trad



Before getting my coat (and face mask) I am attaching the link to JRR, and intend to do this in future. This is in no way to detract from Alyn's unmissable blog - but an admission that I've never got used to the change to Sunday afternoons, and constantly find myself elsewhere when it's on, and in need of Sounds to catch up. So, for those like me (poor dears), here goes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hvnb

[Ian Thumwood]

I thought J-Z was really good this week. The track by Ndudozo Makhatkini was really good . A new name to me and someone I would not have normally have checked out because I generally have an aversion to anything with pyramids on the album cover. I liked that track and was quite impressed with the other bands too with the exception of the accordion track which, I regret, reminded me too much of hearing Jack Emblow on the radio when I was a kid - the sound of getting ready for school on Monday. Nice to see that "Ted" transpired to have had nothing to do with the foul-mouthed bear who probably would be a poor fit for Radio 3.

I have to say that I really liked Lakecia Benjamin's contribution. The track from her album sounded good yet I found her enthusiasm for the music she selected infectious. Glad to see she put a shout out for the late, great Clarke Terry , a musician whose music I have always appreciated. These kinds of discussions can be a bit hit and miss in this programme but in this instance it was nice to hear the input from someone who was deep in the tradition. Difficult not agree with the selection of the tracks and concur with her observations. I felt that I would liked to have heard more about what she had to say. Not at all pretentious and someone who was as much a fan as a musician.

I totally concur with the requester's comment on JRR regarding the "A go-go" track with John Scofield and MMW. There have been a few collaborations since that initial record yet the first record was by far the best. It was a marriage of like minds. The Vic Dickinson track was the stand out for me, though. I really like the idea of the "relaxed mainstream" track , especially as JRR is now the only kind of place you are likely to hear this era of jazz on the radio. This record is a near perfect as it is possible to get in jazz and I am now a lot more appreciative of Ruby Braff than I had been in the past. The amazing thing about this record is the fact that these musicians would (with the exception of Braff) been in their 40s when they recorded this record and still had plenty to say despite the music having moved on. I always feel that those musicians from that generation had bags more personality than any following generation of jazz musicians and even when soloists of the calibre of Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins were the prime influence, their adherents still managed to sound unique and original as opposed to being slavish copies. They are really easy to identify and distinctive.