Play Monk and Powell

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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 of Thelonious Monk and Bud 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 and Chris 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, and Steve Swallow hews 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

Product Description
Kurt Rosenwinkel, Steve Cardenas, Chris Potter, Chris Cheek, Steve Swallow and Paul Motian.

Play Monk and Powell

Play Monk and Powell,Paul Motian & the Electric Bebop Band,Winter & Winter,Avant-Garde Jazz,Bop,Jazz,Jazz Music,Pop,Post-Bop

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