review of Monk Competition (Brief)
Steve Herberman
certain tunes with the finalists and later the judges. Terri Lynn Carrington
on drums, James Genus on bass and Chris Potter on sax. Each finalist was to
play 2 tunes.
Dave Mooney from New Orleans was up first playing a Foster 17" sunburst 7
string archtop thru a Polytone Minibrute. First played Pannonica and then
ESP. On the latter tune Chris Potter joined the group. Dave played both
tunes pickstyle with a nice mix of single notes and chords. Nice dynamics
and great rhythmic chordal material with a full, round tone.
Lage Lund from Norway was up next playing a blond Fender D'Aquisto Ultra.
Nice solo intro to Isfahan played pickstyle with some interesting chord
voicings. The sound was a little "boxy" at first coming from the Polytone
but improved on the next tune. I believe the next tune was "Nefertiti" I
forgot to write this one down so going from memory here...
Potter played the first solo and Lund was listening well an reacting
beautifully in his comping. The majority of Lage's solo was in the upper
register.
Miles Okazaki from Seattle finished the set opening with "Misterioso"
playing a Gibson L4 with a Charlie Christian pickup thru a Twin Reverb.
Okazaki segued into "For All We Know" in Eb playing the melody with his
thumb capturing a Wes feel. His arrangement had some nice reharmonizations.
He snuck another tune in which was Coltrane's "Satellite" played as a
double-time samba. Towards the end of this tune was a heavily arranged
section with the full band:a Metheny-esque complex coda.
Lund took first place, Okazaki 2nd and Mooney 3rd.
I'll be writing an article of the event for modernguitars.com in greater
detail.
Other brief highlights:
Anthony Wilson playing with the composer's award winner Junko Moriya with
Chris Potter, Don Sickler and rhythm section.
Clark Terry, John Pizzarelli and Dee Dee Bridgewater playing "They Can't
Take That Away From Me" with Bob James, James Genus and Terri Lynn
Carrington. Earl Klugh and Russell Malone doing a duet of "Stella By
Starlight"
Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter playing
"Footprints".
Stanley Jordan and Dee Dee B. doing "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New
Orleans"
George Benson playing "On Broadway" (and after Lund was announced the
winner) GB trading licks with Lund on How High The Moon.
A great evening!
......joe
"Steve Herberman" <jazz...@starpower.net> wrote in message
news:vOudnQpqY-Q...@rcn.net...
Thanks for the review, Steve.
What an incredible thing to have witnessed!
My impression is this: the younger players seem to have chosen the
hipper material; or perhaps I should say the material somewhat less
well traveled. ????!!!!
The implications for what may someday come to be known as the standard
repertoire are wonderful to behold:
Pannonica, ESP, Isfahan, Nefertiti, Misterioso, Satellite, etc.
It sounds like the more established players were working out on the
more established material. I'm cool with that.
I wish I'd been there!!! Who knows when this cast of characters will
again take the stage, if ever. .........joe
--
Visit me on the web www.JoeFinn.net
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Steve Herberman
head and realized this is what Lund played, not Nefertiti!
Steve
"Steve Herberman" <jazz...@starpower.net> wrote in message
news:vOudnQpqY-Q...@rcn.net...
onlyserious
September 21, 2005
Picking a Guitarist, Fluent in Monk and More
By NATE CHINEN
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - The organizers of the Thelonious Monk
International Jazz Competition compare it to the Van Cliburn and
Tchaikovsky competitions, appropriately lofty benchmarks for what is
heralded as America's classical music. The other useful parallel,
"American Idol," goes as tactfully unacknowledged as an elephant in the
room.
This year's Monk competition, which focused on the guitar, was
especially revealing of jazz's complex and sometimes contradictory
negotiation between art music and pop. That push and pull was best
personified by George Benson, who received the Maria Fisher Founder's
Award from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the Kennedy Center
on Monday night. After accepting the honor, Mr. Benson, in sunglasses
and a black velvet tracksuit, performed "On Broadway," his theme song.
The fluid and dizzyingly articulate jazz guitar style that Mr. Benson
honed in the 1960's - his Wes Montgomery-derived instrumental voice -
was the lingua franca of the competition. Nearly all of the 10
semifinalists who squared off on Sunday at the Baird Auditorium at the
Smithsonian showed its influence, adopting Mr. Benson's clarity of tone
and crispness of attack.
This might have been a function of a prescreening process that favored
technical achievement within recognizable parameters. It could also
have been a by-product of the regimented semifinals format. Each
guitarist had 15 minutes for three selections, including a Monk
composition. And each was required to use all members of the four-piece
house band.
That part should have been easy. The band, under the direction of the
pianist Bob James, featured several of jazz's most versatile musicians:
the bassist James Genus, the drummer Teri Lyne Carrington and the tenor
saxophonist Chris Potter.
But some of the guitarists seemed cowed by these veterans, and
particularly by Ms. Carrington, whose drumming is as aggressive as it
is responsive. A few competitors failed to click with the ensemble
because they seemed more intent on courting an ostensibly mainstream
judging panel: the guitarists Russell Malone, Earl Klugh, Pat Martino,
Stanley Jordan and John Pizzarelli. (Bill Frisell judged the finals but
missed the semis to wrap up a Village Vanguard engagement.)
Every guitarist was proficient, and there were moments that broke
through the workmanlike conservatism. David Mooney, a New Orleans
native, began with a breezy light-funk number, and then moved on to
"The End of a Love Affair," swinging with a bluesy bite.
But the most arresting artist was a Norwegian named Lage Lund, who has
lately been a fixture on New York's low-rent club scene. (He plays this
Friday and Saturday at Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, Greenwich
Village.) Mr. Lund displayed a sophisticated harmonic literacy and a
natural sense of phrasing.
He was one of the three finalists, along with Mr. Mooney and Miles
Okazaki, to appear at the Kennedy Center on Monday. Mr. Mooney smartly
finessed the Monk ballad "Pannonica" but sounded ill at ease on Wayne
Shorter's sleeker "E.S.P." Mr. Okazaki nailed a barn-burning romp
through John Coltrane's "Countdown," but his lurching rhythmic
deconstruction of Monk's "Misterioso" visibly flustered the band. Mr.
Lund came out strongest over all, but his diffident poise seemed more
aloof than introspective under the glare of the stage lights.
Mr. Lund won first prize, with an accompanying check of $20,000. Mr.
Okazaki received second prize, and $10,000; Mr. Mooney came in third,
with $5,000. (The prize money comes from General Motors, the
competition's major sponsor.) The evening ended with Mr. Lund, the
winner, and Mr. Benson, the honoree, gamely digging into "How High the
Moon," a bit of jazz classicism that harnessed virtuosity in the
service of popular appeal.
Tone
Wow! That alone would have been worth the price of admission for me.
Although I assume they had bass and drums too?
GregD
Thanks for the update, Steve. Lots of us will never be able to get that
close to an event like thar.
Greg
steinber...@gmail.com
Tone wrote:
> > Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter playing "Footprints".
>
>
> Wow! That alone would have been worth the price of admission for me.
I second that!
jkn...@yahoo.com
Mr. Lund
can do so this weekend:
Smalls
183 West 10th @7th Ave.
Fri 9/23 & Sat 9/24
(212)675-7369
www.fatcatjazz.com
Steve Herberman
Yes the group on Footprints had the rhythm section with them. It was
incredible to witness but way too short. I could have heard this group all
night!
Steve
Steve Herberman
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092001354.html