Monk's Dream_音乐专辑
Monk's Dream
表演者: Steve Lacy & Roswell Rudd
专辑类型: Album
介质: Audio CD
发行时间: 3/7/2000
唱片数: 1
出版者: Verve
条形码: 0731454309028
专辑简介
STEVE LACY and ROSWELL RUDD MONK'S DREAM
Over the years, Steve Lacy has played with his share of great jazz explorers-from Thelonious Monk and Gil Evans to Cecil Taylor and Don Cherry. But no discussion of the soprano saxophonist's history would be complete without some mention of his association with trombonist Roswell Rudd. The two have been working together on and off since the late 1950s. Now, almost 40 years after they co-led the groundbreaking School Days quartet of 1961-64, the innovators are reunited on Monk's Dream - a session that not only illustrates Lacy's uniqueness as a soloist and composer, but also underscores the improvisers' appreciation of Monk's legacy. A mutual fascination with Monk's music is one of the main things that has been bringing the 65-year-old Lacy and the 64-year-old Rudd together over the years.
"Roswell and I shared a lot of common ground when we started playing together, and we still do," declares Lacy, who grew up in the U.S. but has lived in Paris since the late 1960s. "We both came up in traditional Dixieland jazz, and we both loved Cecil Taylor's playing. But more than anything, it was an interest in Monk's music that brought us together. I think it's important to have a working partner because you can do research together, and our research was dedicated to Monk's music." The School Days quartet, in fact, devoted itself to playing Monk's music exclusively - a move that was quite radical and daring for its time. Back then, repertory groups were hardly the norm in jazz, especially when the composer was someone as cutting-edge as Thelonious Monk. Lacy, who was among Monk's sidemen in 1960, recalls: "At the time, what we did was unheard of. People thought we were quite crazy, and the concept was not accepted at all. It was such a logical idea to us, but other people didn't see it that way." The School Days quartet was so progressive that no label would take a chance on it. But times have changed, and much of the jazz world has long since caught up with Lacy and Rudd - these days, it's hardly unusual for an improviser to focus on Monk's music extensively.
Like their 1961-64 quartet, the quartet that Lacy and the big-toned Rudd co-lead on Monk's Dream favors a pianoless sax/trombone/double bass/drums format. Lacy and Rudd are joined on this new recording by longtime Lacy collaborators Jean-Jacques Avenel on double bass and John Betsch on drums. And instead of embracing Monk's music exclusively, this quartet emphasizes Lacy's own compositions while continuing to celebrate Monk's legacy.
The nine selections on Monk's Dream fall into three main categories: three Lacy pieces he previously recorded in the 1980s or early 1990s ("The Door," "The Bath," and "The Rent"), three new Lacy pieces ("A Bright Pearl," "Traces," and "Grey Blue"), the music of Monk ("Monk's Dream" and "Pannonica"), and of Duke Ellington ("Koko"). "A Bright Pearl" and "Traces" both feature Irene Aebi, a unique, classical-influenced vocalist. Both pieces were inspired by the Zen poems of Ryokan (a revered Japanese poet of the 19th Century), and are dedicated to jazz musicians who died in the 1990s - "A Bright Pearl" to drummer Denis Charles, "Traces" to the French bassist Alby Cullaz. Meanwhile, the bluesy "Grey Blue" was inspired by the death of a close friend, and "The Rent" was written for Laurent Goddet, a French jazz critic who committed suicide in the late 1980s. "Laurent Goddet was a good friend and a champion of my music," Lacy stresses. "He really understood what I was doing. The title 'The Rent' is a play on words. When Laurent died, it left a rent - a rent meaning a tear, a hole or a gap. And now, we pay the rent with it. The piece has a blues grind and a cha-cha-cha-Laurent loved jazz, but he also liked to cha-cha-cha."
First recorded by Lacy in the early 1980s, "The Bath" is a playful, Monk-influenced piece that was used in an obscure film based on a Henry Miller story. Lacy explains, "In the film, a guy lets a bum take a bath in his apartment - and the bum is so happy because he hasn't bathed in years. The movie didn't have a big life, but I've been playing 'The Bath' ever since."
"The Door" was influenced by classical artist J. Haydn, who was known for using objects in musical settings. European classical and chamber music have long influenced Lacy's composing. "Haydn used various toys and objects in his works," Lacy notes. "You hear the sound of someone knocking on 'The Door.'"
"Monk's Dream" and "Pannonica" are among the Monk classics that Lacy and Rudd interpreted in their 1961-64 quartet, whose repertoire included over 50 Monk compositions. "Interpret" is still the key word when it comes to Lacy and Rudd playing Monk's music from the early 1960s into the 21st Century, their devotion to Monk's compositions has never been a slavish, knee-jerk sort of devotion. Rather, Lacy and Rudd have kept Monk's music fresh by playing it on their own terms. Unlike Monk himself, the Lacy/Rudd Quartet has played his music without a pianist.
"There seems to be no final interpretation of Monk's music," asserts Rudd, who lives in upstate New York. "It can be explored and re-explored. New elements just keep coming out of Monk's music, which has wonderful quirks. It draws you out, and you want to keep on playing it because you're never satisfied. As you progress and advance, you find new things in Monk's music so it inspires you to keep growing yourself."
Lacy adds, "Monk's music is so well constructed that it's still interesting to play after all these years."
Considering that the Lacy/Rudd Quartet was too ambitious for a lot of labels in the early 1960s, do they find it ironic that Monk's Dream is coming out on a label as prominent as Verve? Rudd responds: "Our quartet was definitely ahead of its time. It takes time for people to catch on, but eventually, they do, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have this album out on Verve." Lacy adds: "Things happen when they're supposed to happen and not before. What is true of art and literature is also true of music, when something is new, it's only for the aficionados. But when the stuff gets older, everyone wants to try it. At first, it's avant-garde, then it becomes classic, and everyone loves it. Forty years ago, a lot of people didn't understand what Roswell and I were doing, but today, a lot of people are into Monk's music."
Monk's Dream available on CD March 7, 2000.
For more information, contact: Jennifer Levy - jennifer.levy@umusic.com Verve web site: www.vervemusicgroup.
曲目
1. Monk's Dream
2. The Bath
3. The Rent
4. Pannonica
5. A Bright Pearl
6. Traces
7. Koko
8. Grey Blue
9. The Door
