As promised, my wife and I went to hear T.S. Monk and his ten-piece band Friday night. We make a point of going on a date every year the day after Christmas, as a reward for surviving the shopping/cooking/seeing relatives etc. season. This year I was lucky enough to win tickets to Yoshi's for December 26, and I didn't even have to answer a trivia question; just called KUSF radio and they were mine. The club was picked, too. We went to the 10:00 show, and were dog tired as a result of spending the afternoon seeing "The Big Sleep" and "The Maltese Falcon" at the Roxie, and indulging in a chicken-pesto pizza at the Pacific Coast brewery, but this music was so easy to enjoy, we didn't have to put any energy into it.
The band:
Monk, drums Don Sickler, trumpet (and respectful, skillful arranger) Jeff Stockham, trumpet and French horn Isaac Smith, trombone Ronnie Mathews, piano (direct from an eighteen-hour flight from Japan) Gary Wang, bass Howard Johnson, baritone sax David Shumaker, tenor sax Don Braden, tenor sax Bobby Porcelli, alto sax Dianne Reeves, vocals
The tunes: "I Mean You," "Bye-Ya," "Bright Mississippi" (I think), one I didn't know, "Ask Me Now" (piano and bass only, as background while Monk talked), "Ruby, My Dear," "In Walked Bud," and "Little Rootie Tootie."
I liked this even better than when I heard basically the same band at an outdoor concert back in August, because in the club setting you can hear everybody better and get more of a feeling of what the soloists are like. (Plus you're sitting on a comfortable stool and can have scotch and chocolate cake.) Porcelli, for example. I didn't get into what he was doing too much at the earlier concert, but Friday night I really started to appreciate him. He has a sweet clear tone, and an unhurried approach to soloing, like he enjoys each note so much he's not in any rush to get to the next.
I was glad to see Gary Wang on the stand. He stood out at the previous show. He's a straight ahead, solid bass player with a thumping sound, and he sounds exactly right for this music; he and TSM make a great bashing team. Wang is 24 but looks about fifteen. I'd rather hear him play this than the superstars Monk used on the "Monk on Monk" CD (which I haven't heard).
I hadn't heard Don Braden before. I liked his solos real well. He reminds me of the elder Thelonious in a way because he will play a chorus that sounds mostly conservative harmonically, then outline some jarring chords, then some material that relates those chords to the changes - a fine balance of consonant/dissonant.
Ms. Reeves is a low alto, but also has some stratospheric whistle tones that she used only once, to good effect. She is very accurate, and was kind to "Ruby, My Dear," and "In Walked Bud," the same two songs Nnenna Freelon had sung with the band back in August.
Young Isaac Smith was given one solo, in "Bright Mississippi," that was a high point. He started out jaunty and got progressively hotter and more frantic.
T.S. was talkative as usual. He always says something that surprises me; this time it was that Thelonious had been "Jelly Roll Morton's prot 7g 7," and "very close to James P. Johnson."
The core of this band has been touring together for the past several months, and they are very tight in ensemble playing. The tune whose name I don't know had lovely reed and brass voicing for soprano (Braden), alto, tenor, baritone, 2 trumpets and trombone, played legato.
This show would have been worth it even if I had to pay.