Jamaaladeen
Tacuma, The Flavors of Thelonious
Monk Reloaded
(Extraplatte)
Rubicon
Trio, Ugly Beauty: The
Monk Session (AMP Records)
While modern jazz
re-shaped the music’s very fiber, it is only with Thelonious Monk’s music that
we find conceptual reconstructions a matter of course. Monk was the avant among
jazz futurists, leading toward the next avant-garde. And within a wealth of
spectacular Monk re-imaginings, Muhal Richard Abrams to Andy Summers, Steve
Lacy to the Kronos Quartet, the concepts, happily, rage on.
Jamaaladeen Tacuma, today’s primary connection to Ornette Coleman’s Harmolodic Theory, cast his vision in a German release of 2007, now available on these shores. The Flavors of Thelonious Monk Reloaded features the leader’s masterful improvisations on his signature Steinberger bass, cutting through this live set of tightly rhythmic be-bop interpretations of Monk. What may be confusing to some is that Tacuma recorded a different Flavors of Thelonious Monk (1994) in tandem with Austrian saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig covering some of the same material, albeit in a very different manner.
Opening with a Tacuma narration dripping with synthesizers from which “Well You Needn’t” grows as a darkly funky version of the classic bop standard, the album’s throbbing intensity remains relentless. The bassist’s solo on “We See” is utterly shredding, covering the harmonic spectrum, shades of “sheets of sound”, and the effect is dizzying. But revel, too, for the tireless work of percussionist Napolean Black’s conjuring of Elvin Jones as much as Chano Pozo. And locked into the jazz-fusion which overlays this 14+ minute statement, Black and drummer Tim Hutson heartily propel as aerial keyboardist Orin Evans maintains the original’s stinging crushes and minor seconds. Tacuma’s inclusion of his own narration (particularly on “Blue Monk”), as well as moodily recorded statements by others, adds a documentary quality to the tribute. One hears this clearly in the singular “Bemsha Swing”, with Evans’ Moog amblings over the rhythm section’s pocket groove conjuring mid-period Weather Report.
A whole other vision is heard within the Swedish ensemble the Rubicon Trio’s Ugly Beauty: The Monk Session. While the band’s guitar/bass/drums line-up is fairly standard in jazz quarters, the distinctly European approach to same stands far apart from the jam sessions at Minton’s which found Monk in the company of Charlie Christian. Opening with the relatively rare “Skippy”, the band truly comes into its own brandishing the several brief movements comprising “Brilliant Corners”. This piece, among the composer’s most memorable, is heard in all its sinister glory, particularly as Jon Kvarnas half-time bowed bass guides the ear to Eric Leis’ up-tempo electric guitar melody, tossing bits of ‘spy guitar’ into the post-modern gumbo. However, the title cut, a term with which underdeveloped listeners have used to describe the entire Monk catalog, sits as the Trio’s perfect atmospheric ballad. Even as Leis glides singingly through the piece, carrying memories of Joe Pass and Emily Remler, the guitarist’s forays into chromatic lines remain at the heart of Thelonious’ own. Ditto for “Evidence”, but then Rubicon’s take on “Bye-ya” focuses on the composition’s Brazilian core, liltingly. And look out for the swinging outre of “Four in One”, a recording that could have been a lost take on Hal Wilner’s profound That’s the Way That I Feel Now Monk tribute of the 1980s.
Credits:
Jamaaladeen Tacuma, The Flavors of Monk: Jamaaladeen Tacuma, bass guitar, vocals, narrator /Orrin Evans, piano, synthesizer/Tim Hutson, drums, percussion/Napoleon Black, percussion
Rubicon Trio, Ugly Beauty: The Monk Session: Erik Leis (guitar)/Mikael Tungström (drums)/Jon Kvarnäs (bass)
