Play Monk & Powell
Drummer Paul Motian has made many recordings like this in the past (all good, by the way), but none better than this venture into the music ofThelonious MonkandBud Powell. To begin with, in an age when almost everyone claims to be playing bebop, Motian & Co. get it right--the starts and stops, the nervous tension, the angularity, the chamber-group intimacy. The two guitars (Kurt Rosenwinkel and Steve Cardenas) and two tenors (Chris Cheek andChris Potter) wind together in rich, improvised counterpoint, shifting through solos, duos, and group configurations as if they had played this material forever. Motian plays with the rush of the music in metabop fashion, andSteve Swallowhews to the chordal line, even if doing so on a fuzzy electric bass. Monk perhaps gets a slight edge here with nice readings of "We See," "I'll Keep Loving You," "Rootie Tootie," and an especially inspired "Brilliant Corners." But Bud Powell's "Wail" is taut, brisk, and close to thrilling. Cleanly played and produced, and lots of fun.--John F. Szwed