Joy with a contemporary twist

[Serial_Apologist]

But not THE Twist!

Sat 25 Mar
5pm - J to Z
Jumoké Fashola celebrates the arrival of spring with potentially uplifting jazz tracks. Plus a chat with Bronx-born vocalist Samara Joy, who has been described as an embodiment of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, but with a contemporary twist.

Only potentially?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001cgg9

12midnight - Freeness
Corey Mwamba presents improvised music inspired by city soundscapes, including a collaboration by Jason Nazary (Anteloper) and duo Saint Abdullah to conjure ambient visions of the cityscapes of New York. Plus Cupo ("dark" in Italian) - a brooding, shapeshifting soundscape by multi-instrumentalist Laila Sakini and percussionist Valentina Magaletti, recorded in various settings across London - and a love letter to Madrid from Wade Matthew.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001k864

Sun 26 Mar
4pm - Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton pays tribute to saxophonist, composer and Weather Report co-founder Wayne Shorter, who died earlier this month, aged 89. Shorter was also known for his role in Miles Davis's second quintet of the 1960s.

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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bs8x

Pianist/keyboardsperson Fergus McCreadie has his piece of his, Landslide, performed in company with bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson as third on the programme for Monday's New Generation Artists, 4.30pm next Monday, following pieces by Schumann and Mozart.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001k8f7

Thurs 30 Mar - Radio 4
11.30am - Arthur Briggs - the Brit Who Brought Jazz to Europe

Thought this programme more than deserving of attention:

Born in Grenada in 1901, Arthur Briggs learned to play trumpet in Harlem, New York, and is believed to be the only British subject to have participated in the creation of jazz. In archive recordings, he tells of his adventures as a black man leading a band of musicians around Europe in the1920s and 30s. Memories include the aftermath of race riots in Liverpool, the execution of Turkish opposition leaders in Ankara, and four years in a Nazi internment camp. Presented by Hugh Schofield.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001kh4k

[Quarky]

My initial knee-jerk reaction to Samara Joy is that she may have a better voice in many respects than the two divas - at least, more up my street:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUe1VdaF0Nfz1Gho3SWWb8A

[Alyn_Shipton]

If you read the pre-edit version of this post I thought Arthur Briggs had been born in Charleston S.C. and that's what we put in the Grove Dictionary of Jazz. But more recent research does indeed place him as born in Grenada in 1899. So good on Radio 4 for reflecting that. Despite the UK passport, he barely lived in Britain, though he was here 1919-20, and briefly in 1922. However the passport saved him from being sent to the Nazi camps in Eastern Europe, he was interned in St Denis, just outside Paris. But given the second claim in the blurb for the programme, how about Rudolph Dunbar as a British passport holder (Born British Guiana - as it then was - in 1899) who played jazz. He may have had a degree in classical music from Juilliard, but he played in NY with Will Vodery , and financed himself through music school playing jazz in Harlem. Toured Britain with Blackbirds of 1927, he led his own 12 piece band in London before the war - the Harlem Knights, which I remember Max Jones telling me he'd heard (and conducted both the RPO and the Berlin Phil). I knew Rudolph well, he lived just round the corner from Paddington from 1951, and in the 80s we often met for a Guinness and a chat in the years before his death in 1988. He knew Briggs in London and Paris. It'd have been interesting to have his - er - rather caustic views in this programme!

[Serial_Apologist]

If you read the pre-edit version of this post I thought Arthur Briggs had been born in Charleston S.C. and that's what we put in the Grove Dictionary of Jazz. But more recent research does indeed place him as born in Grenada in 1899. So good on Radio 4 for reflecting that. Despite the UK passport, he barely lived in Britain, though he was here 1919-20, and briefly in 1922. However the passport saved him from being sent to the Nazi camps in Eastern Europe, he was interned in St Denis, just outside Paris. But given the second claim in the blurb for the programme, how about Rudolph Dunbar as a British passport holder (Born British Guiana - as it then was - in 1899) who played jazz. He may have had a degree in classical music from Juilliard, but he played in NY with Will Vodery , and financed himself through music school playing jazz in Harlem. Toured Britain with Blackbirds of 1927, he led his own 12 piece band in London before the war - the Harlem Knights, which I remember Max Jones telling me he'd heard (and conducted both the RPO and the Berlin Phil). I knew Rudolph well, he lived just round the corner from Paddington from 1951, and in the 80s we often met for a Guinness and a chat in the years before his death in 1988. He knew Briggs in London and Paris. It'd have been interesting to have his - er - rather caustic views in this programme!

Thanks Alyn for this information. Really looking forward to the programme.

[Jazzrook]

Fascinating programme on Arthur Briggs well presented by Hugh Schofield.
Travis Atria's biography 'Better Days Will Come Again' looks well-worth reading:

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/interview-with-travis-atria-author-of-better-days-will-come-again-the-life-of-arthur-briggs-jazz-genius-of-harlem-paris-and-a-nazi-prison-camp/

JR

[Ian Thumwood]

Fascinating programme on Arthur Briggs well presented by Hugh Schofield.
Travis Atria's biography 'Better Days Will Come Again' looks well-worth reading:

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/interview-with-travis-atria-author-of-better-days-will-come-again-the-life-of-arthur-briggs-jazz-genius-of-harlem-paris-and-a-nazi-prison-camp/

JR

I saw that this book had been published. The name of Will Vodery mentioned by Alyn keeps popping up in articles about early jazz although I believe he was really more associated with Broadway productions sch as "Showboat." About twenty years ago I went to the World War One museum at Peronne in Picardy and there was a clip in a short film which showed an African-American military band marching down a road. I did not recognise the James Reese Europe in the short clip and had wondered if this was the band that Vodery led at the same time in France. Later on, Vodery was supposed to have had some influence on Duke Ellington.