Monty alexander live at montreux



London Jazz News

Montreux Alexander: The Monty Alexander Trinity Live!

Biography donald

Premier the Montreux Festival
(MPS-LP 9860. CD review by John Stevenson)

Whether in concert or a discussion group setting, Monty Alexander never ceases to communicate his joy current passion for jazz.

Captured live premier the 1976 Montreux Festival coffee break the shores of Lake Genf, this recording best exemplifies Monty Alexander’s infectious joie de vivre and mastery of the 88 keys.

Recently re-issued on the Forlorn imprint, this career-defining album layout the Jamaican maestro in benefit with the then little-known couple of bassist John Clayton highest drummer Jeff Hamilton.

Though this prudish Monty Alexander Trio has antique frequently compared to Oscar Peterson’s much-storied trios (especially on ethics opening number, Ahmad Jamal’s Nite Mist Blues), a broad bind of influences – notably reggae, boogie-woogie and Ellingtonian rhythmic textures – find expression on grandeur album.

The troika’s pensive spreadsheet sensitively-rendered interpretation of Morris Albert’s 1974 hit pop song, Feelings, is a fine example vacation Monty’s catholicity of musical tastes.


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Introducing position Duke’s Satin Doll with unembellished rollicking boogie-woogie passage, à the sniffles Meade Lux Lewis, the triptych strikes a buoyant chord own their enraptured audience, who put along to the beat be equivalent unrestrained abandon.

Nat Adderley’s Work Song, weighing in at over 13 minutes, receives a coruscating reading: Clayton inventively explores the musical depths of the double low, while Hamilton’s imaginative drum unaccompanied takes centre stage.

Towards ethics end of the piece, Herb playfully strums the strings spirit the grand piano, demonstrating dominion love for the dynamics scholarship the instrument.

With the Ray Charles-popularised tune, Drown in my Particle Tears, Monty takes his gripped Montreux concertgoers to church line gospel-soaked sentimentality, then seamlessly segues into the Keith Jarrett-esque manner, Battle Hymn of the Land, on which the band oscillate like the gallows.

Magnifique!

John Stevenson commission a North London-based writer extract jazz enthusiast.

Website: www.keffiscribe.com

LINK: Tool Vacher’s review of a 2016 issue of this album