Ubuntu Music UBU0179CD
Dave O’Higgins (tenor saxophone); Luke Fowler (double bass); Billy Pod (drums); Sean Fyffe (piano); Martin Shaw (trumpet & flugelhorn)
Recorded 20 September 2023 (trio) & 24 April 2024 (quartet & quintet)
Following on from a couple of albums and a tour with guitarist Rob Luft playing Monk’s music, the saxophonist fell that it would be a shame not to continue to play the music (having played some 70 plus Monk tunes), and felt there was more mileage to be had from the project. How right he was!
Initially conceived a trio of tenor, bass and drums the music has a very different interpretation with no chordal instrument. In a canny move thinking in terms of gigging the music, the trio invited some guests in to record some quartet and quintet tracks thus expanding the concept further.
Recorded over two sessions, one for the trio and a second for the quartet and quintet the musicians laid down the tracks the old-fashioned way with everyone in the same room with no headphones. The music over the two sessions is uniformly excellent, and over the course of an hour delivers up twelve Monk compositions some of which are old favourites and a few lesser-known pieces.
The music is beautifully captured and the playing is crisp and lively. The quintet take on ‘Two Timer’ and ‘Brake’s Sake’ the former with a lovely theme played out with piano, trumpet and tenor in unison and the latter bringing the Blue Note sound of the fifties to mind. A tough little swinger, O’Higgins gets in a nice solo before Martin Shaw’s elegant flugel solo. Shaw also get in some rather tasty trumpet in the piano less quartet that take on Monk’s cheery ‘San Francisco Holiday’.
Rather more conventional is the quartet, and often Thelonious’s preferred line up, of tenor plus rhythm heard on ‘Evidence’ and ‘Four in One’. The is an almost tangible sense of relaxation for O’Higgins here as he eases into his solos with a familiar and secure rhythmic accompaniment.
For those paying attention, you will by now have picked up on the album’s title referring to the different line ups on one album; four in all with 2 different quartets, a quintet and of course the trio, and for me the key tracks are with the trio.
The trio titles are assured but have a restless edge and sense of excitement that is lacking when the piano is present. The saxophonist is sounding belligerent in his reading of ‘Well You Needn’t’ and Fowler and Pod push hard all the way. The bass and drums set up the excellent ‘Green Chimneys with a propulsive rhythm that brings out the saxophonist’s best solo of the set, closely followed by his playing on ‘Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are’.
Excellent stuff, and wouldn’t it be something if this fine trio can get out on the road with this music?
