Patrick Forge's Podcast

I'm of that generation, I experienced the "Starman" moment seeing David Bowie on Top Of The Pops with a shock of orange spikes, dressed in clothes that defied description, putting his arm around Mick Ronson in a way that seems so innocuous today but was extraordinary then. At school the following day it felt as though the world had rearranged itself overnight to accommodate this beguiling new presence, similarly when the news broke on Monday morning it was like losing one of the major coordinates of my world, I felt disorientated and adrift, this time in a bad way. David Bowie was just a phenomenal artist who defined the seventies, the decade belonged to him; from glam to soul to ambient, from straight up rock'n roll to new contours of sonic wizardry, Bowie took us on a helter-skelter ride reinventing himself again and again, and all with a consummate cool and a fiery creativity.

I wouldn't pretend that Bowie made a telling contribution to black music, and Luther Vandross had quite enough talent to make it without a leg-up from the Thin White Duke, yet it's impossible to understand Bowie's oeuvre without looking at his relationship with it. From stealing Mingus titles "Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am" to taking inspiration from James Brown for Ziggy Stardust's "Rock 'n Roll Suicide".. the soulful side of Bowie is never far from the surface. Then in '74, riding the crest of a wave of his (glam) success, Bowie makes the kind of radical move that would go on to define his career, he makes a soul record. Recording at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound and bringing on board the likes of Vandross, Sly & The Family Stone drummer Andy Newmark, and guitarist Carlos Alomar, Young Americans is a record that stands both within and outside tradition. A lush, sensuous and emotive album that Bowie himself would describe as "plastic soul", self effacing as ever, as he was about his singing voice, Young Americans and several cuts from the following Station To Station are as good as it gets when it comes to a white artist making soul music in their own way.....after all "Fame" and "Golden Years" were good enough for U.S. tv's definitive Soul Train... But hey, I don't need to justify Bowie's brilliance, begrudge him and you can stand outside with the real weirdos!!!!

Concentrating on this mid seventies period, when coincidentally Bowie was taking vast quantities of the old marching powder, and dipping into both preceding and subsequent phases, here's two hours of appreciation and celebration. Let's not lament too much, yes Bowie's is an irreplaceable talent, but we should be grateful for all he gave through those golden years.

1. 1984

2. Golden Years

3. Fascination

4. Luther Vandross - Funky Music (Is A Part Of Me)

5. Fat Larry's Band - Fascination

6. Look Back In Anger

7. Alladin Sane (live)

8. Changes

9. Robert Glasper ft. Bilal - Letter To Hermione

10. Sound and Vision

11. Ashes To Ashes

12. Young Americans

13. Fill Your Heart

14. Warszawa

15. Win

16. Sweet Thing/Kandidate (live)

17. Wild Is The Wind

18. Can You Hear Me?

19. New Career In A New Town

20. John I'm Only Dancing (Again)

21. Stay

22. Heroes (live)

23. Dollar Days

1. Dego & Kaidi - Black Is Key

2. Hiatus Kaiyote - By Fire

3. Kendrick Lamarr - These Walls

4. Kamasi Washington - The Rhythm Changes

5. Bill Laurance - U-Bahn

6. Daymé Arocena - El Ruso

7. Young Gun Silver Fox - So Bad

8. Ben Cox Band - When Ends Appear

9. Jamie Woon - Sharpness

10. Theo Jackson - Camberwell Butterfly

11. Nat Birchall - Ngozi (Vision)

12. Greg Foat Group - Hygeia

13. The Rebirth - Caterpillar

14. Jill Scott - Can't Wait

15. Jeb Loy Nichols - The Wintering Of The Year

16. D'Angelo - Betray My Heart

17. Shaun Martin - Madiba

18. Deep Tenor City - Oba

19. James Mason - The Dance Of Life

1. Native Dancer - Love

2. Eska - Shades Of Blue

3. Brandee Younger - Respected Destroyer

4. Rhonda Thomas - Honey 2 A B

5. Ajoyo - Benskin

6. Mbongwana Star - Shegué

7. Dele Sosimi - E Get No Better

8. The Foreign Exchange - Milk And Honey

9. Emily Saunders - Residing

10. Harold Mabern ft. Gregory Porter - Afro Blue

11. Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch - Sugarplums

12. Corrie Dick -Soar

13. Thundercat - Lone Wolf And Cub

14. Jay Nemor - Don't Wait For Time

15. Matthew Halsall ft Josephine Oniyama - Into Forever

16. Thundercat - Lone Wolf And Cub

17. Alicia Myers - Hallelujah ( Right Here, Right Now)

18. Los Charly's Orchestra ft Xantoné Blacq - All Around The World

19. Lucas Arruda - Solar

20. Dego & 2000 Black Family - Don't Stop (Let It Go)

21. The Rebirth - By Design

1.Gerard Presencer - Blues For Des

2. Primo & The Groupe - Jazz Carnival

3. KING - The Greatest

4. Young Gun Silver Fox - See Me Slumber

5. Jae Mason - Cloud Of Sunshine

6. Killiam Shakespeare ft Ebony Joi - Stars

7. Shokazulu - Sammy Sebastian (dego's KJM edit)

8. Bunny Brunel - You

9. Carlos Garnett - Panama Roots

10. Bill Evans - Peace Piece

11. Doug Carn - Peace

12. Harold Land - The Peacemaker

13. Grant Green - Cease The Bombing

14. Mary Lou Williams - Gloria

15. Curtis Mayfield - We Got To Have Peace

16. Mighty Ryeders - Let There Be Peace

17. The Impressions - Stop The War

18. Father's Children - Who's Gonna Save The World?

19. Jeb Loy Nicholls - The Wintering Of The Year

20. Reverie - In Every Way

21. Lonnie Liston Smith - Visions Of A New World pt.2

1. Red Garland - Manteca

2. Lee Morgan - Nakatini Suite

3. Mongo Santamaria - O Mi Shango

4. Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble - Le Le

5. McCoy Tyner - Horizon

6. Baya - A Vegas Kind Of Guy

7. Azar Lawrence - Theme For A New Day

8. The Dells - Love Can Make It Easier

9. Carmen McRae - You Can't Hide Love

10. Freda Payne - Tell Me Please

11. Patti Labelle - Love Is Just A Touch Away

12. Phyllis Hyman - Living Inside Your Love

13. High Fashion - Feelin' Lucky Lately

14. The Ramonas - I Don't Want You Back

15. Damon Harris - It's Music

16. Sylvester - Over And Over

17. Wood Brass & Steel - Funkanova

1. Seven Samurai - Cosmic Jam

2. Dele Sosimi - You No Fit Touch Am ( Modified Man Remix)

3. Max Labor - Mama Says

4. Jamie Woon - Celebration

5. Jeb Loy-Nicholls - That's How We're Living

6. Young Gun Silver Fox - In My Pocket

7. Greg Dean ft Chantae Cann & Jarrod Lawson - Unconditional Love

8. Carlos Garnett - Samba Serenade

9. Alex Malheiros & Banda Utopia - Uno Esta ( Spiritual South Remix)

10. Tullivu Donna Cumberbatch - Come Sunday

11. Chanan Hanspal - Sensuous

12. George Benson - Ode To A Kudu

13. Jesse Fischer - Refuge

14. Adam & Kizzie - Dachsund

15. Lenny White & Twennynine - Slip Away

16. Michael Henderson - Whip It

17. Benny Golson - Walkin' & Stalkin'

18. The Antilles - Simon's Melody

19. Jesse Fischer - Nomads

20. Vula Viel - Bewa

1. Red Clay

2. Just Give Me Time

3. The Power Of A Smile (with The Herb Geller Octet)

4. San Francisco

5. Dingwalls

6. Boplicity ( Be-bop Lives)

7. Stolen Moments

8. Two Kites

9. Madalena

10. Empty Faces

11. The Waters Of March

12. Twelve Tribes (with 4-Hero)

13. Beauty And The Beast

14. We Could Be Flying

15. I Don't Want To Cry Anymore

16. Laura ( with The Metropole Orchestra)

17. Senor Blues (with London, Meader, Pramuk & Ross)

18. Why And How

19. Come And Get Me (with The Five Corners Quintet)

20. Effendi

21. Milestones

22. Young And Foolish

1. The Milk - Wanderlust

2. Jamie Woon - Message

3. Jay Nemor - Music

4. Lars Bartkuhn - Golden Age (Slow Jam)

5. Cleveland Watkiss - The Sea, The Sky

6. Kaidi Tatham - Harmonius pt 2.

7. Tullivu-Donna Cumberbatch - Give Thanks

8. Mongo Santamaria - Promised Land

9. Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Pisando El Cesped

10. Stephen Whynott - Retreat Suite

11. Sergio Mendes - Righteous Life

12. The Sylvers - I Know Myself

13. Greetje Kauffeld - Day By Day

14. Paul Desmond - America

15. Ghalib Ghallab - Little Sunflower

16. Kalapana - All I Want

17. Hilary - Sundancers

18. S.O.S. Band - High Hopes

19. Bill Wolfer - Call Me

20. Merc & Monk - Babyface

21. Beverley Skeete - If The Feeling Is Right

22. Jean Carn - Don't Let It Go To Your Head

23. Eddie Kendricks - Body Talk

O.K. so maybe I could have dug even deeper, but hopefully you'll appreciate that with the birth of my twin boys, crate diggin' time is limited, so recourse to few old favourites in this selection. Nevertheless it's not exactly obvious unless you're one of those chin stroking jazz snobs. I'd been wanting to do a kind of "pure" jazz show for a while, the criteria could have been even more stringent, I could have outlawed all electric instruments, but I did want to keep some variety.

I can't remember the last time I played something from the Riverside label on the show, so slipping a couple into the first half hour was kind of satisfying, great tunes from Jimmy Heath and Clifford Jordan. Then there's vocals, a scat masterclass from Jon Hendricks, Ann Young tearing up a standard and The Metronomes with silky smooth harmonies.

I also decided to do a mini Prestige feature.... what's the difference between Blue Note and Prestige, a day's rehearsal.... yes it is the kind of ugly sister of classic jazz labels, more "blowing dates" less recording sessions. Yet of course there are some awesome titles in the Prestige catalogue, Frank Wess' "Southern Comfort" is certainly one of those, soul-jazz with a Latin twist and really punchy well balanced recording.

As always the mellow meltdown in the middle is fun to do, it's what radio's for in my opinion. Listening to Duke Pearson's Sweet Honey Bee album again for the first time in ages, the beauty of "After The Rain" left me quite astounded, Pearson was the quintessential Blue Note artist, he acted as an A&R man for Alfred Lion, and composed the timeless "Cristo Redentor" for which he should be duly honoured as it is one of the most beautiful melodies of all time. "After The Rain" comes close to that peak of sublimity. Continuing the rainy theme the Masabumi Kikuchi composition "Drizzling Rain" from his album with Gil Evans is just as beguiling, with a Japanese lyricism, a kind of Jazz haiku. "En Passant" performed by West Coast stalwarts Shelly Manne ands His Men is an early composition by the great John Williams from U.S. tv series Checkmate, Williams' list of film credits is ridiculous , probably the most successful composer of the twentieth century?

All that instrumental grace is followed by a trio of vocal cuts with a morning theme....lushness from Carmen McRae, the brilliant Lorez Alexandria, and Andy Bey ripping some conscious flavour through Gary Bartz NTU Troops leftfoot jazz-funk.

Closing the show the last sequence gets lowdown and funky, and a bit abstract! Drums and basslines, a touch of James Brown in Roy Haynes' "Guadalupe", and some electronic undertow in Julian Priester's " Love Love" which I played just a portion of as it covers a whole side.

Shame that I only squeezed a the first bit of Monette Sudler's "Brighter Days For You" as it takes me back to my early days of The Cosmic Jam all those years ago.... still love it, and the title says it all.

Peace, love and music

P.x

1. Jimmy Heath Orchestra - Big P

2. Jon Hendricks - Good Ol' Lady

3. Benny Bailey - Little B

4. Ann Young & Yuji Ohno Trio - Speak Low

5. Hector Costita - Tokio

6. Mary Lou Williams & Friends - Prologue

7. Clifford Jordan - Bearcat

8. The Metronomes - On Green Dolphin Street

9. Sun Ra - The Others In Their World

10. Tadd Dameron & John Coltrane - Mating Call

11. Frank Wess - Blues For Butterball

12. Charles Earland - Letha

13. Duke Pearson - After The Rain

14. Gil Evans & Masabumi Kikuchi - Drizzling Rain

15. Shelly Manne & His Men - En Passant

16. Carmen McRae - Just A Little Lovin'

17. Lorez Alexandria - Morning

18. Gary Bartz NTU Troop - Rise

19. Doug Hammond - Kone Pone

20. Roy Haynes - Guadalupe

21. Julian Priester - Love Love

22. Byron Pope Speed Of Light - No Boundaries

23. Monette Sudler Sextet - Brighter Days For You

The really important issues of the day like the fate of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn and the mysteries of infant colic are things The Cosmic Jam has no licence to deal with. Whatever else is going on in the world or in my life melts away for two hours on a Sunday night, and that's the way it should be. Music is our sanctuary through all times.

1. Third Stream - In A Galaxy Far Away

2. Johnny Hammond - Detroit Rainbow

3. Lucas Arruda ft Leon Ware & Guida De Palma - Stop Look And Listen

4. The Gingerbread Express - Missed Another Day

5. Nancy Wilson - Call Me

6. The Foreign Exchange ft Carlitta Durand - Disappear

7. Ben Cox Band - Blessed Are The Bleak

8. Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra - Badder Weather

9. Sekou Sundiata - Days Going By In Broken English

10. Nat Birchall - Njozi (Vision)

11. Christian Scott - Of A New Cool

12. Malcolm Cecil - Gamelonia Dusk

13. Mathhew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra - Daan Park

14. Seeds Of Fulfillment - The Provider

15. Lindsey Webster - Open Up

16. Zé Ze Motta - Oxum

17. George Duke ft Flora Purim - Yana Aminah

18. Johnny Hammond - Why Can't We Smile? (unreleased version)

19. Milton Nascimento - Marie Trés Filhos

20. Milton Nascimento - Viola Violar (live)

21. Milton Nascimento - Cravo E Canela

22. Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Des Nude Soul

23. Jay Hoggard - Sao Pablo

24. Kathryn Moses - Music In My Heart

25. Ulla - Space Lady.