Monk All Star Tentet - Paris 2000

Here's a great recording by fine band, doing Monk tunes under the direction of Don Sickler. The band includes several Monk collaborators in drummer Ben Riley (also member of Sphere), tenor Johnny Griffin, as well as occasional sidemen Eddie Bert, Steve Lacy and Phil Woods. Sickler himself shares trumpet duties with Jack Walrath, best known from his time with Mingus. Finally, there's Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax, Ronnie Mathews on piano, and David Williams on bass.

Pianist Ronnie Mathews sounds way too smooth - as do all pianists when playing Monk, in my opinion, except maybe Mal Waldron, but then he plays with a very different kind of roughness and edginess then Monk's.
Anyway, if you're not completely opposed to others playing Monk's tunes, you should like this, I hope!



Monk All Star Tentet
Paris (FR), New Morning
April 4, 2000

Don Sickler - trumpet (solo on #2,4)
Jack Walrath - trumpet (solo on #3,6)
Eddie Bert - trombone
Steve Lacy - soprano sax
Phil Woods - alto sax, clarinet
Johnny Griffin - tenor sax
Ronnie Cuber - baritone sax
Ronnie Mathews - piano
David Williams - bass
Ben Riley - drums

Set 1
1. Epistrophy (9:23) [skip @ 0:23]
2. Bye Ya (8:30) [short fm voiceover at beginning]
3. Evidence (12:50)
4. Ugly Beauty > band intros DS (7:37)

Set 2
5. I Mean You (11:48)
6. Oska T. (8:58)
7. Light Blue (9:35)

All compositions by Thelonious Monk

TT: 68:46

Sound: A/A-
Source: France Musiques broadcast (Claude Carrière)

:: ubu edits ::
deleted 2 second gaps
fixed marks
deleted as much fm talk as possible
added fade-outs and fade-ins where necessary to make smooth segues
Additional lineage: FLAC > WAV > Cool Edit Pro > FLAC (8,asb,verify)

Note: baritone saxophonist was given as Gary Smulyan