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Steve Lacy:
soprano saxophone; Anthony Brown: drumset, gong; Louis
Fasman: trumpet, fluegelhorn; Mark Izu: bass, Chinese mouth
organ (sheng); Melecio Magdaluyo: alto sax, baritone sax,
cajón (Cuban box drum); Dave Martell:
trombone, tuba; Hafez
Modirzadeh: tenor sax, alto clarinet; Jim Norton:
contra alto
clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone sax, soprano sax; Wayne
Wallace: trombone; Hong Wong: Chinese viola (zhonghu)
and mouth organ; Francis Wong: tenor sax, clarinet;
John Worley: trumpet, fluegelhorn; Yang Qin Zhao:
Chinese
hammered dulcimer (yangqin).
Anthony
Brown's Liner Notes to "Monk's Moods"
I
began by thinking of the parallels and
affinities Monk shared with Asia, and his interpretation of "Kojo
Noh Tsuki," retitled "Japanese Folk
Song" first came to mind. The preeminence of the
number five in Asian culture and music, particularly the five
elements in Chinese philosophy, is ostensibly resonant with
the centrality of Monk’s musical flatted fifths. His
employment of pentatonic scales along with his fondness for
Chinese headgear displayed an oriental sensitivity. Also,
Monk’s often Zen-like aphorisms, his oblique, asymmetrical
musical phrasings and generous use of space evoked an Asian
sensibility, not to mention his refrigerator usually filled
with take-out Chinese food (if "you are what you eat...").
My
first inclination was to focus on Monk’s compositional
craft, particularly in his solo piano performances, to work
with the intricacies of his music and to showcase its beauty
and eccentricity in an ensemble format. For me, this meant to
remove the piano from the arrangements, to preempt the
inevitable stylistic comparisons between Monk and whoever
attempted to recreate the idiomatic idiosyncrasies of his
piano-centric conceptions. My next move was to revisit the
Hall Overton arrangements for the 1959 Town Hall concert of
Monk’s first orchestra, and to blend a Chinese hammered
dulcimer, viola and mouth organ into the adaptations.
The Chinese hammered dulcimer, or yangqin
("yang-chin"), meaning "foreign
instrument," came to China from Persia as the santoor
in
the 1500s. The pianoforte was invented 200 years later in
Italy when the keyboard was added. For me, returning to its
original "Grandmother" was the perfect strategy for
replacing the piano.
Another
natural parameter was to draw from works and
arrangements recorded during Monk’s prolific six-year tenure
with Riverside when Orrin was his producer. This selection
facilitated including several of his musical family portraits,
those for his wife, son, sister-in law and his self-portrait, "Monk’s
Mood," although the origins of that title vary.
Steve Lacy claims the original title was, "That’s
the Way I Feel Now," while Max Roach says he was
with Monk in an uptown after hours nightclub when he wrote, "Why
Do You Evade Facts?"
The
possibility of a Monk-alumnus as a guest on the
Orchestra’s recording precipitated a meeting with Steve
Lacy. Orrin and I met with Steve after his performance in
March 2000 at San Francisco’s Noe Valley Ministry. After
listening to the Orchestra’s Grammy nominated version of
Ellington’s Far East Suite back at his home in
Paris, Steve wrote and said he would like to record with us
when he returned to the West Coast in August.
The
first of two recording dates took place on April 20, 2000,
at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. Three Overton adaptations
along with updated arrangements of "Brilliant
Corners" and "Evidence" were
completed for the session with the invaluable assistance of
Jim Norton. To begin the CD with the "title" tune
seemed totally natural since it encapsulates our intent to
capture several facets of Monk’s musical sensibilities. Our
allusion to the trio version by Monk, John Coltrane and Wilbur
Ware begins with a viola solo by Hong Wang, which yields to
Yang Qin’s commanding entrance on hammered dulcimer,
accompanied by Mark Izu’s strummed double bass. This
introduces the full orchestra featuring a brass choir
supporting the solo alto saxophone by Melecio Magdaluyo.
The
rest of the session went without a hitch; we completed
five tracks from 10am-3pm. We even cut "Little Rootie
Tootie" in one hurried take, waiting for the pizza
to be delivered for our noon lunch break. We returned to the
studio in August after meeting with Steve Lacy and rehearsing
with him the day before. The repertoire was chosen and
arrangements written after listening to several of Lacy’s
solo soprano saxophone recordings of Monk compositions. The
charts were written so that Lacy could play what he usually
does and to surround him with the Orchestra. Wayne Wallace was
asked to write an arrangement for "Misterioso"
and he came up with the funkiest Elliot Carteresque jazz
arrangement ever. The closing "Pannonica"
was recorded as a quartet after Steve heard Yang Qin playing
it solo during a break. Again, the session netted five tracks
in five hours.
Despite
the uncommon smoothness of the recording sessions, the
Monk’s Moods project hit bumpy roads in the
business end of things. Orrin had secured a recording deal
with EMusic, a "legal" internet music downloading
company, to release Monk’s Moods as the first of
ten recordings on Orrin’s new label, Keeper Records.
Monk’s Moods was released initially as a downloadable at
Emusic.com in March 2001, however, Universal-Vivendi absorbed
EMusic in June 2001 and the Keeper Records projects languished
in a corporate black hole for another year. After finally
securing the Rights and Masters, I released Monk’s Moods
in September 2002 as a CD on my daughters’ label, Water
Baby Records.
The
recording of Monk’s Moods includes: Steve Lacy
(soprano saxophone), Anthony Brown (drumset, gong), Louis
Fasman (trumpet, fluegelhorn), Mark Izu (bass, Chinese mouth
organ—sheng), Melecio Magdaluyo (alto sax, baritone sax,
cajón [Cuban box drum]), Dave Martell (trombone, tuba),
Hafez Modirzadeh (tenor sax, alto clarinet), Jim Norton
(contra alto clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone sax, soprano
sax), Wayne Wallace (trombone), Hong Wong (Chinese viola—zhonghu
and mouth organ), Francis Wong (tenor sax, clarinet),
John Worley (trumpet, fluegelhorn), Yang Qin Zhao (Chinese
hammered dulcimer—yangqin).
Special
thanks to Steve Lacy for his
embracing spirit, and to the Asian American Orchestra and
Orrin Keepnews for realizing this project. My gratitude to Lee
Tanner and Chuck Stewart for the use of their original Monk
prints. Thank you: David Luke, Stephen Hart,
Nina Bombardier, Coleen Geoffray, Stuart Kremsky and Jeff
Porter at Fantasy Studios; Dr. Leonard Brown; Jazz In Flight; SF JAZZ; and
Lauraine Bacon @ KABA Audio. Domo arigato to my family,
Michael Aczon, Max Roach, Dan Morgenstern, Ken Kimery, Robert
Berenson, David Barker, Andy Nozaka, Neil Tesser, Bill
Bennett, Andrew Bartlett, Derek Sivers, Melody of China,
KCSM-FM, KPFA, KQED, WERS, WBEZ, WBGO.
— Anthony
Brown, Ph.D.
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