Barney McAll: MonK KnoW: Explorations of Thelonious Monk (Independent, digital release)
Review by Des Cowley.
Thelonious Monk’s body of work casts a long shadow over jazz history, ever since the pianist first stepped into the WOR studios in 1947 to record a series of classic sides for the Blue Note label. Those angular, knotty compositions, whether ‘Ruby, My Dear’, ‘Well, You Needn’t’, or ‘Off Minor’, have long been considered standards, essential tools in any player’s kit.
To argue his influence is all-pervasive feels like an understatement. Consider John Coltrane, whose six-month stint with Monk at the Five Spot in New York in 1957 left him transformed. Or Steve Lacy, who spent the better part of a lifetime re-interpreting Monk’s music for soprano sax. Or our own Bernie McGann. Or artists like Alexander von Schlippenbach and Miles Okazaki, who went the whole hog, recording Monk’s complete works.
Like those artists, Melbourne pianist Barney McAll is in thrall to Monk’s work, seeing in his music “a hallowed messenger of freedom, exploration, truth and individuality.”
On this seventy-five-minute live recording he tackles ten Monk compositions, aided and abetted by a stellar line-up: saxophonist Scott McConnachie, bassist Sam Anning, drummer Felix Bloxsom (with sax giant Julien Wilson guesting on two tracks). From the get-go this incandescent group engages in a highwire act, paying due respect to Monk’s vision, while at the same time stamping their own personalities on this music. The results speak for themselves.
Throughout, McAll routinely plumbs Monk’s singular genius, adding dissonant flurries to the quartet’s reading of ‘Four in One’, or teasing out the contrasting melodic and abstract elements found at the heart of Monk’s ‘Tinkle Tinkle’. The nearly eight-minute ‘Light Blue’ unfurls like a gentle whisper, bathed in a romantic wash; while ‘Ask Me Now’ spotlights Scott McConnachie’s dreamy alto, which floats in and around the melody, recalling Eric Dolphy’s unorthodox approach.
Speaking of which, check out McConnachie’s free-form soprano sax on ‘Raise Four’, or his burning face-off against Julien Wilson on ‘We See’. For whatever reason, he remains a criminally under-recorded artist whose every note committed to tape should be savoured and treasured.
Make no mistake, these are raggedy and spirited renditions, hewing closely to Monk’s famous statement that “jazz is freedom.” With few efforts made to tidy up stray or loose ends, classics like ‘Ugly Beauty’, ‘Bye Ya’, and ‘Reflections’ are instead given a new lease, their outlines pushed and prodded, ground into new shapes. Contrary to much contemporary jazz, you can sense the quartet having fun on these tunes.
McAll is one of our great creative talents, with a raft of seminal and award-winning albums under his belt: Mother of Dreams (2005), Hearing the Blood (2017), Mooroolbark (2021), Precious Energy (2022). With MonK KnoW, his compositional chops are given a backseat, and instead he pays homage – albeit in his own fashion – to one of the masters. Sometimes, knowing where you’re from is just as important as knowing where you’re headed.