In A Mellow Tone
Wednesday August 14th, 2024 with Heavy Ben, Natalie & Ian
Jazz All-Stars: Influential figures who changed the game
Itching to learn more about jazz history? Tune into In a Mellow tone tonight to hear the hosts' each showcase an influential figure, whose efforts and/or impact contributed to a transformative change, thereby altering the trajectory of the genre.
| Grover Washington Jr. was a soul-jazz saxophone player in Philadelphia, getting his start in the late 60s. It was his 1975 release, Mister Magic, that was a big commercial success that paved the way for smooth jazz (and eventually Kenny G.). Washington Jr. also had a less commercial side and his album with Kenny Burrell recorded about ten years later is a good example. |
| Inner City Blues (excerpt) Grover Washington Jr. - Inner City Blues - Kudu Records, 1971 |
| Earth Tones Grover Washington Jr. - Mister Magic - Kudu Records, 1975 |
| Mister Magic Grover Washington Jr. - Mister Magic - Kudu Records, 1975 |
| Black Frost Grover Washington Jr. - Mister Magic - Kudu Records, 1975 |
| Togethering Grover Washington Jr. and Kenny Burrell - Togethering - Blue Note Records, 1985 |
| Ashphalt Canyon Blues Grover Washington Jr. and Kenny Burrell - Togethering - Blue Note Records, 1985 |
| Live Performance - Jazz At The Philharmonic in 1957 Oscar Peterson Trio - Live Performance - Jazz At The Philharmonic in 1957 
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| Strange Fruit Billie Holiday - At Jazz At The Philharmonic - Clef Records, 1954 |
| The Man I Love (Live At Carnegie Hall, 1946) Billie Holiday - At Jazz At The Philharmonic - Clef Records, 1954 |
| St. Louis Blues Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges - Back To Back - Verve Records, 1959 |
| Take The "A" Train Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington - Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book - Verve Records, 1957 |
| Cheek To Cheek Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis - Verve Records, 1956 |
| Drummers with Seb Rochford’s kind of virtuosity are always going to be in demand, but it’s still astonishing to take a look over the full range of projects he’s been involved with. He’s the one degree of separation between Herbie Hancock and Brett Anderson (Suede), Yoko Ono and Peter Doherty (Libertines), Brian Eno and Adele, Shabaka Hutchings and Brigitte Fontaine. It’s almost absurd.
His own band, Polar Bear, is hard to classify. They were booked at jazz festivals, were nominated for a BBC Jazz Award, and Jazzwise included "Held On The Tips of Fingers" as one of "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World". It was also nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize. However, the surging electronics and gritty soundscapes don’t immediately place Polar Bear in the ‘canon’ of jazz history. Rochford’s music was aptly called “the sound of the future”, and looking back over the past 20 years, it's not hard to hear why. Polar Bear has reclaimed the in-the-moment, radical, "out" attitude that jazz pretty much invented, back in the day, and then has progressively lost, at least in some strands, as it has become an increasingly repertory-bound, cautious, and conservative music. Let's listen to one track from each of Polar Bear's six albums, a piece from Sons Of Kemet that Rochford co-founded, and a new release under the moniker 137 that includes reed player Larry Stabbins and ex-Portishead members Adrian Utley and Jim Barr. |
| Lost in Death, Pt. 1 Polar Bear - In Each And Every One - Leaf - 2014 |
| Polar Bear Standing And Ready Polar Bear - Dim Lit - Babel - 2003 |
| To Touch the Red Brick Polar Bear - Held On The Tips Of Fingers - Babel - 2005 |
| Don't Let the Feeling Go Polar Bear - Same As You - Leaf - 2015 |
| Happy for You Polar Bear - Peepers - Leaf - 2010 |
| My Queen Is Angela Davis Sons Of Kemet - Your Queen Is A Reptile - Impulse! - 2018 |
| Voices Polar Bear - Polar Bear - Tin Angel - 2008 |
| Two Base Flute 137 - Strangeness Oscillation - Noetic - 2024 
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9:04 PM, August 14th, 2024