The Boston Globe newspaper

EXPANDED SOUND FROM T. S. MONK

Author: By Bob Blumenthal, Globe Correspondent
Date: 11/19/1997 Page: F2
Section: Arts and Film
MUSIC REVIEW

T. S. MONK TENTET

At: Scullers, first set last night (concludes Friday)

Perhaps orchestral jazz would have enjoyed greater popularity among the modernists if Thelonious Monk had used expanded ensembles for more than the rare concert. Recordings made at Town Hall (1959) and Lincoln Center (1963) reveal that Monk and his arranger Hall Overton knew how to make a 10-piece band sound 50 percent bigger, yet remain spry as a quartet.

Monk's son, drummer T. S. Monk, with a critical assist from trumpeter Don Sickler, is getting the same results from an expanded version of the T. S. Monk Sextet. Using the same instrumentation employed in 1963, Sickler has expanded upon Overton's original orchestrations and added his own in the same style. The music works exceptionally well with an array of guests added on the recent album ``Monk on Monk,'' and T. S. Monk sustains the same spirit and depth minus the visiting stars in live performance.

There is no great secret to orchestrating Monk beyond listening to what he did at the piano. Sickler, like Overton, pays attention to the broad, dense harmonies Monk wrote and the thematic reductions he employed in his piano accompaniments. With some efficient doubling among the horn players, especially Jeff Stockham (trumpet and French horn) and Howard Johnson (tuba, clarinet, and baritone sax), the rich astringence of the music is gloriously captured.

Even a little big band is hard pressed to accommodate all of its soloists. T. S. Monk addresses the problem by occasionally pairing instrumentalists for what begin as eight-bar exchanges and work their way down to simultaneous improvisations. Sickler and Stockham made the music crackle when they shared a trumpet solo on ``Epistrophy,'' while alto saxophonists Bobby Porcelli and Bobby Watson threatened to implode ``Four in One'' with their snarling engagement.

Another effective pairing involved a scat-singing Nnenna Freelon and Johnson's baritone sax on "In Walked Bud.'' Freelon has grown far more comfortable than she sounds on the album, and both her ad libbing on "Bud'' and ballad singing on ``Ruby, My Dear'' were strong and sure. Johnson simply devoured all of the music, traversing the range of his baritone sax on "Bud'' and "Bye-ya'' and blowing bop lines without gimmicks during his tuba solo on "Evidence."

More than one solo each from trombonist Eddie Bert (a veteran of the Monk/Overton ensembles), tenor saxophonist Don Braden, and Stockham's fluent French horn would have been welcomed. Those who did get extra room acquitted themselves well, especially Sickler and pianist Ronnie Mathews. The latter has the good sense not to imitate Monk, save for when he got up and danced while the band executed a transcription of the careening piano solo from a Monk recording of "Four in One."

The St. Louis Dispatch

Friday, May 29, 1998
Another Thelonious Monk gets the crowd in the swing

By Michael J. RENNER
Special to the post-Dispatch

This is not brain surgery. This is not rocket science. This is guttural, visceral, tap-your-feet music, and we're going to swing you to death," declared drummer T. S. Monk on the opening night of his sextet's stint at Jazz at the Bistro last week. And swing they did. With high-energy, in your face jamming, the seasoned ensemble showed what five years of partnership and commitment can yield.

Those familiar with the angular compositions and taciturn demeanor of his father, Thelonious Sphere Monk Sr., will be surprised by the younger Monk's musical simplicity and garrulousness on stage. In fact, he is better known for running the educational Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz than he is for his performance talent.

Fortunately, Monk Jr. doesn't try to mold himself after his father that would be foolish anyway given the idiosyncratic nature of father Monk's life and music.

At a young age, Monk Jr. chose the drums. He was never pushed into music by his father. And after playing jazz with dad's group in the mid-'70s, he played mainly funk and R&B until the mid-'80s. After a long break from music, Monk eased his way back into jazz at age 40 when he joined Clifford Jordan's Big Band in 1991.

What sets this Monk apart from the myriad performers playing mainstream hard-bop is not so much his drumming, which is energetic, busy and crashingly spiritedÑbut rather; the level of superb musicianship with which he surrounds himself. Pianist Ronnie Matthews is an exemplar of modal playing and masterful comping.

Bassist Gary Wang, at 24 the youngest member of the band, proves that youth and a computer-science degree don't mean you can't swing.

But it's the rich, three-part horn lines that blow away audiences. Alto saxophonist Bobby Porcelli trumpeter/arranger Don Sickler and tenor saxophonist Willie Williams constitute a taut, cohesive unit that commands attention.

From the start, they swung mightily on 'The Dealer Takes Four,' running through brisk lines and crisp solos. Sickler's arrangements rely on a tight ensemble sound and are constructed to take full advantage of the horn players' different styles.

Kenny Dorham's "Speculate" was an all-out blowing contest. Each horn player ran through a few furious bars, playing increasingly shorter snippets until they melted into an exciting wall of sound.

Monk's funk background was evident in both his soloing and comping, propelling the group with bombastic accents and out-front beats much in the manner of a big-band drummer. Even with a 101degree fever, Monk was a busy player alternating sticks, hounding his ride cymbal and dishing out huge slabs of percussion.

The brief closer, Jordan's blistering 12-bar blues 'Middle Of The Block,' was an eye-popping tune that elicited spontaneous shouts and applause from the audience.

Monday, October 13, 1997
'Monk on Monk' Gets the Mythic Just Right

Jazz Review

By Don Heckman

Special to the Times

What would have been Thelonious Monk's 80th birthday received an enthusiastic celebration Friday night at the Veterans Wadsworth Theater. A 10piece ensemble led by drummer Thelonious Monk Jr. spent the evening exploring a program, "Monk on Monk," completely devoted to the music of one of Jazz's most vital, influential artists.

The program included a full range of Monk pieces - from "Evidence," and "Little Rootie Tootie" to "Bye Ya," "Jackie-ing" and "Crepuscule With Nellie." The ensemble playing, even in works as thorny as the rapid-fire "Four in One," was first rate. Singer Nnenna Freelon added some attractive, Sarah Vaughantinged vocals on "Ruby, My Dear" and " Round Midnight" and scatted effectively on "In Walked Bud" (retitled ÒSuddenly" in a new version with lyrics by Jon Hendricks).

Good stuff, all of it, with almost every number underscoring and confirming the breadth and scope of Monk's creative imagination. Not only did he compose music filled with instantly recognizable themes, but he did so In a startling array of Myles. At some point or other in the evening, traces of stride style, blues, bebop and sheer balladry poured through the music. Perhaps most important of all, there was an utter individuality to all of it, never leaving the slightest doubt that this was Monk music.

The players worked hard to make it happen, performing extremely difficult scores with an energy that drew repeated applause from the full-house audience. Among the numerous soloists, alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, tenor and soprano saxophonist Willie Williams, trumpeter Don Sickler and pianist Ronnie Matthews were standouts.

Were there problems with the performance? A few. It was ironic, for example, that Monk Jr. made a point of identifying his father not simply as the "High Priest of Bebop" but also as "The Father of Modern Jazz" and then proceeded to lead Monk tunes that were filled with bebop-based soloing.

There was, in addition, the nature of the connection between the soloing and the compositions.

It's common for jazz ensembles to play an opening thane and then abandon it for Improvisations based upon the harmonica of that theme. But Monk's works, far more than themes and melodies, are precisely notated pieces in which chordal placements, melodic accents and rhythms are all extremely specific. Compositions such as these demand improvisations that reach beyond the chordal structure. And too often, the "Monk on Monk" musicians chose to abandon the intricacies of the Monk compositions in favor of stretched-out, essentially unrelated choruses based solely on the works' harmonies.

Still, those carps aside, it was good to have a full evening dedicated to these superb works ("Monk on Monk" is also available on N2K Records). Somewhere, one suspects, Monk, who died in 1982 at 64, was listening, doing his trademark little dance, happily grooving with the music.

Ottawa Citizen

Monday, July 20, 1998

By Peter Hum

The collaboration between jazz 'bandleader T.S. Monk and the National Arts Centre Orchestra had Event" written all over it before it even began. Last night, the show lived up to its billing. The largest show staged in the Ottawa International Jazz Festival s history was a two-and-a-half hour feel-good session for a packed Confederation Park crowd.

Monk, his sextet, guest-conductor David Amram and the orchestra bridged the gap between jazz and classical music through the strength of their good intentions and generous showmanship.

A cynic might have been wary that the mesh of music would be an oil and water combination, especially with little rehearsal time for the New York-based jazzmen and the local classical players. But Amram, with his energy, raconteur's wit and bilingualism, and Monk, 48, with his personal link to the music of his celebrated father the late Thelonious Monk, won over the audience as much with their words as with their music.

As for the orchestra's interpretation of jazz, the listeners rooted for them as they would root for the Ottawa Senators at the Stanley Cup.

With Monk's sextet still in the wings, the orchestra performed two suites that would have fit on a pops evening program, offering music from George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess and Leonard Bernstein's Westside Story

They were smart, if very familiar choices, as accessible crowd-pleasers for crossover listeners new to jazz. Also, they allowed the orchestra to get a feel for Amram's conducting.

The New York-based Amram, 67, who is a player and a composer of both jazz and classical music, introduced these tunes as tributes.

The first set ended on another feel good note for the Canadian crowd as the sextet and orchestra played Toronto flutist Moe Koffman's Swinging Shepherd Blues. Amram urged the audience to sing along with his lyrics that lauded Ottawa and jazz.

The second set was mostly given over to the music of Monk's father but not before the two bands played Amram's tribute to Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo. A non-stop showman Amram played tin whistles agogo bells and congas and capped the tune off by leading the audience in a clap-along.

The long awaited set of Monk selections began with Bye'ya, Monk s calypso/swing song. Amram's arrangement ennobled this piece and Monk's hornmen Willie Williams and Bobby Porcelli wailed.

Next came Crepuscule with Nellie, named after T.S. Monk s mother. The orchestral version was faithful to the song' lumbering tenderness.

The sextet closed the show with a rollicking Round Midnight and Evidence. T. S. Monk told the crowd he had dreamt of hearing his fathers music in this grand setting, in this grand context. The dream came true, and the reality was a delight.