Jason Moran Brings Monk Into The Multimedia Age
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Sitting in the unlikely setting of LSO St Luke’s in London, a converted 18th-century Hawksmoor church, five years into its new life as a music and education venue, it’s hard not to think of what Thelonious Monk would have made of it. His image flickering and distant, voice muffled and humorous and even the sound of his feet, dancing around a distant room, filling the church and beaming out into the air as part of Jason Moran’s In My Mind project last night.
Moran had recreated the Monk At Town Hall concert from 1959 originally for a commission by Duke university in North Carolina and he is currently on tour for the Contemporary Music Network with his trio plus a UK horn and reeds section featuring leading local players such as Byron Wallen, Jason Yarde and Denys Baptiste. Harnessing multimedia video projections and even donning headphones to play along with the original music, with the audience hearing the Monk music but then later on having the audio cut leaving only the musicians to catch the music as they freely improvise, this was a deeply researched and innovative concert.
Moran, who came to the fore initially 10 years ago as a protégé of Greg Osby, along with drummer Nasheet Waits and the crucial presence of Tarus Mateen (also Osby alumni), is by now one of the most abstract pianists in contemporary US jazz. While not crossing the Rubicon into a less bluesy Improv dimension, he tellingly made his mark here via his reworkings of both melody and structure and unfussy musical direction. Using the canvas of Monk’s tunes, Moran does not forget to communicate the edgy percussiveness of the often quirky material, the inherent swing and and its overt tenderness.
The twist in the presentation is the personalising and updating in the autobiographical screen captions through which Moran tells his own story, how he was affected by Monk’s music in his and his parents’ lives, and also through the North Carolina connection recalling the age of slavery affecting Monk’s forebears. Yet the 1950s is foregrounded and the most compelling episode of the concert was the drum solo by Waits set against a tough onslaught of grey scale graphical dots bombarding the audience, like an evil eye test, as we are told of Monk being beaten in a racist attack. The effect was mesmerising as was the musical narrative, with clever use of both trombone and tuba, and the opportunity for some scalding solos by Jason Yarde particularly, tempered by the spiritual searchings of Denys Baptiste sat beside him. As the evening shadows lengthened outside, as this fine concert came to a close, ‘Crepuscule With Nellie’ never sounded so apt.
Stephen Graham
The tour continues at the Sage Gateshead (tonight), the CBSO Centre, Birmingham on Friday 23 May and at the Bath Festival on Saturday 24 May
(Pictured: Jason Moran)
Moran, who came to the fore initially 10 years ago as a protégé of Greg Osby, along with drummer Nasheet Waits and the crucial presence of Tarus Mateen (also Osby alumni), is by now one of the most abstract pianists in contemporary US jazz. While not crossing the Rubicon into a less bluesy Improv dimension, he tellingly made his mark here via his reworkings of both melody and structure and unfussy musical direction. Using the canvas of Monk’s tunes, Moran does not forget to communicate the edgy percussiveness of the often quirky material, the inherent swing and and its overt tenderness.
The twist in the presentation is the personalising and updating in the autobiographical screen captions through which Moran tells his own story, how he was affected by Monk’s music in his and his parents’ lives, and also through the North Carolina connection recalling the age of slavery affecting Monk’s forebears. Yet the 1950s is foregrounded and the most compelling episode of the concert was the drum solo by Waits set against a tough onslaught of grey scale graphical dots bombarding the audience, like an evil eye test, as we are told of Monk being beaten in a racist attack. The effect was mesmerising as was the musical narrative, with clever use of both trombone and tuba, and the opportunity for some scalding solos by Jason Yarde particularly, tempered by the spiritual searchings of Denys Baptiste sat beside him. As the evening shadows lengthened outside, as this fine concert came to a close, ‘Crepuscule With Nellie’ never sounded so apt.
Stephen Graham
The tour continues at the Sage Gateshead (tonight), the CBSO Centre, Birmingham on Friday 23 May and at the Bath Festival on Saturday 24 May
(Pictured: Jason Moran)