Vol.1 was welcomed in Jazzwise 212, though I had a couple of reservations and secretly wondered (off-screen) how well it worked as an actual album. Vol.2 probably works better, which is surprising since the guest soloists are more numerous. The meat – apart from Monk's tunes, that is – still revolves around the raunchy big-band sound and, though the ideas about adaptation (all from Beasley, apart from ‘I Mean You’ arranged by trumpeter Swartz) are sometimes a bit wacky, the playing is spirited, to say the least. It's not clear whether any of these tracks are from the same sessions as Vol.1, as the artwork would seem to suggest, but the in-house soloists including Bob Sheppard on soprano definitely pull their weight. Among the guests, Reeves does a fine ‘Ruby My Dear’ and one Dontae Winslow has a striking trumpet solo between rapping about Monk. Kamasi Washington, up-tempo on ‘Evidence’, is perhaps less memorable, but Carter's violin is well integrated into a blissed-out ‘Crepescule With Nellie’.