Play Monk & Powell - Premium Handcrafted Wooden Toys for Kids | Perfect for Creative Play, Gift Giving & Montessori Learning

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Product Description Kurt Rosenwinkel, Steve Cardenas, Chris Potter, Chris Cheek, Steve Swallow and Paul Motian. Amazon.com 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 Review Paul Motian, that most subtle and supple of drummers, leads his group through an energetic set of tunes by Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. The members of his "Electric Bebop Band" - Steve Swallow on electric bass, tenormen Chris Cheek and Chris Potter, and guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel and Steve Cardenas all display an easy command of their instruments. Even if their voices are somewhat anonymous, the guitarists create inspired dynamics between each other, and the whole album has an agreeable, appropriate, and alluringly bright tone.Motian, of course, displays his usual self-confidence and restraint throughout. Rather than pummel the listener with self-indulgent solos, he opts to tether his prowess to the needs of the ensemble. By side-stepping muscularity in favor of quietly dynamic shading, he creates a complex, elastic pulse that always anchors and enhances the music without screaming for attention. When his drums do push through to the foreground, as on Powell's "Wail," the result is tastefully succinct, melodic interplay, not bombastic overkill.By infusing most tunes here with a velocity perhaps more associated with Powell's brisk fluidity, Motian glosses over some of Monk's trademark rhythmic choppiness. The happy upside to this move away from the blocky phrasing of most Monk interpretations is an underutilized focus on his amusing, sprightly melodies.--- Patrick Hughes, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc. -- From Jazziz See more