Year: 2005
Record Label: Telarc
Style: Straight-Ahead / Classic
Musicians: Monty Alexander (piano), Hassan Shakur (bass), Mark Taylor (drums), Robert Thomas Jr. (hand drums and drums)
Review: Has Monty Alexander really been playing jazz for over 40 years? His youthful vigor and eternal interest in getting his audiences swaying and clapping continue unabated. But, in a kind of commemoration of his longevity and rapturous spells upon audiences, Alexander performed at the new Iridium in New York City in May 2004. And Telarc Records was there to record it all.
Though Alexander doesn’t read music—like other musicians such as Dr. Lonnie Smith who strongly affect listeners, particularly in live settings—he long ago crossed over into the realm where the instrument, no matter what it may be, becomes the means for expressing what the musician feels in ways that words can’t. As Alexander has often noted, he likes nothing more than seeing his audience sway as one, their differences dispelled by the music, as they are charmed by the spirit of Alexander’s personality channeled through the piano.
Much of his ability to connect instantly with listeners comes from Alexander’s boyhood in Jamaica, where he was equally excited by the music of Louis Armstrong, who came to play at Kingston’s Carib Theater, and the infectious reach of guitarist Ernest Ranglin. Indeed, Alexander gained some of his early recording experiences in the island’s recording studios, especially Studio One, in the early days of ska, predating the reggae that followed. Ever since, Alexander has balanced the tension of pursuing a jazz career in the United States and his affection for his Jamaican musical roots. Of late, Alexander has made up for lost time by recording on Telarc the Jamaican music that he had sidestepped, such as his joint project with Ranglin, Rocksteady, and his reunion with fellow Jamaican natives Robby Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar on Monty Meets Sly and Robbie. Now, Alexander is as likely to go back to the music of his childhood as he is to refer to influences like Nat Cole or reminisce about experiences with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie or Frank Sinatra.
And that’s what happened at the Iridium, where Alexander’s quartet (with not one, but two, drummers—or a drummer and a percussionist) alternated between the reggae feel of “Runnin’ Away” and the straightahead development of the the ballad, “That’s The Way It Is.” From the steel pans providing the initial atmosphere of the islands on Alexander’s “Happylypso” to the long tremolo-aplenty crescendo expanding throughout the entire length of his non-Jamacianized version of Neal Hefti’s “Little Darlin’.” From the uplifting samba feel of “Mount Zanda” with its successive key changes and quotes from “Brazil” and “Three Blind Mice” to the impressionistic approach to his “The River,” though Alexander can never stray far from melodic beauty, which drives “The River.”
The fun that Alexander has with the music spreads to his audience, and the result is that his is a style that has become firmly established, immediately recognizable when he plays from the energy that he invests in each performance to his synthesis of Jamaican rhythms and American jazz. Even though Alexander may start with Nat Adderley’s “The Work Song,” his tribute to the ability of music to transcend the injustice and drudgery of manual labor, it doesn’t remain Adderley’s song for long as Alexander makes it his own through successive key changes, quarter-note chugging of the left hand as bassist Hassan Shakur plucks the melody, and a cranking up of the excitement as the work is overcome by the joy of the music. Likewise, Blue Mitchell’s “Funjii Mama” doesn’t remain blue or Blue’s for long as Alexander merges the calypso cheer of his appropriately but cornily named “Happylypso” with “Funjii Mama” so that they become happilypsily and hopelessly intertwined, even with “I’ve Got Rhythm.” Although Alexander borrows obviously from Erroll Garner in segments of his interpretation of “My Mother’s Eyes,” not to mention Ray Bryant and Nat Cole, Alexander comes into his own when he segues into double time, moving from slow balladry to a light traditional piano trio swing.
The evolution of Alexander’s recordings from those with jazz legends like Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Brown to reggae work with the very few musicians who can play it with authenticity to a rediscovery of his love of America and now to a live recording has revealed layer by layer the core of his playing that excites audiences. Perhaps the next recording will progress from Monty Alexander’s ability to rouse the dozens of listeners in a jazz club to his joy in exciting hundreds of clapping and dancing attendees in an open-air jazz festival. Maybe even at St. Lucia or another one in the Caribbean.
Tracks: The Work Song, Slappin', My Mother's Eyes, Happylypso/Funji Mama, The River, Runnin' Away, Little Darlin', Mount Zanda, That's The Way It Is
Record Label Website: http://www.telarc.com
Listen or Buy: @ amazon.com
Reviewed by:
Don Williamson
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