At Carnegie Hall
THELONIOUS MONK QUARTET WITH JOHN COLTRANE
Blue Note
In 1957, two watershed developments occurred in the life of John Coltrane: He swapped heroin and booze for spirituality, and he joined pianist/composer Thelonious Monk's band. Both of these served to rapidly accelerate Trane's musical development. Although the Monk/Coltrane quartet's nine-month tenure at New York's Five Spot Café is historically revered in jazz circles, the collaboration was essentially under-recorded. So the discovery of this Carnegie Hall concert from Nov. 29, 1957 — found in February in the vaults of the Library of Congress — is big news among the cognoscenti.
The music contained herein merits the giddiness. The band, which also includes drummer Shadow Wilson and bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, delivers precise readings of some of Monk's most prized tunes, among them "Epistrophy," "Blue Monk," "Monk's Mood," "Evidence" and "Nutty."
Trane, whose late-career sets had little use for his own melodies, is particularly committed to Monk's quirky, angular hooks. When he launches into solos, his terse blizzards of notes acutely follow the harmonic construction, and provide an engaging counterpoint to Monk's oddly accented, full-fisted lines.
Rather than stay out of the way during his sideman's flights, Monk pokes and prods with playful chord clusters. When the pianist takes center stage, his artfully crude playing sounds all the more idiosyncratic. It's nigh impossible that this two-set, 51-minute performance would contain the expansiveness and daring heard at the Five Spot, but it's still an invaluable document that contains some damn fine playing. Plus, the recording quality equals the best of the era.
By the way, the bill on this "Thanksgiving Jazz" concert also featured Billie Holiday, the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, Ray Charles, Chet Baker and Zoot Sims, and Sonny Rollins. Kind of makes you want to book a time machine. HHHH 1/2
ERIC SNIDER
Howl
BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB
RCA
Until now, BRMC has been synonymous with gloomy electric distortion and black leather jackets. That changes here, as the band lays down a collection of tunes using mostly acoustic guitars, foot-stomping percussion and lyrics about God and the devil. While the album isn't a total 180 — the foggy title track would have fit nicely on the band's previous efforts — BRMC has found something soulful in its new approach. The real breakthrough would be if the group could fully integrate the new with the old on the same LP, but until then we'll just have to whip together our own dream mix tapes. HHH 1/2
COOPER LANE BAKER
The Valley of the Shadow of Death
THE TOSSERS
Victory
This visceral, poetic Chicago septet is more than worthy of the accolades regularly heaped on other Celt-rock groups like Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys. The Tossers are nowhere near as punky or guitar-based as those acts, but instead ply a more Pogues-ish mix of traditional instrumentation and full-bore attitude. With the possible exception of the turgid "Go Down Witch Down," every track here, whether personal, political or a gutter-philosophy combination of the two, shines, and fairly vibrates with gritty realism. (www.victoryrecords.com) HHHH
SCOTT HARRELL
Captain Fantastic and Brown Dirt Cowboy (Deluxe Edition)
ELTON JOHN
Island/Chronicles
I've long held that Elton John's last great record was 1973's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. So this reissue of '75's Captain Fantastic presented me with a nice opportunity to revisit EJ in his post-greatness phase. I'm sticking to my previous assessment, although I'll admit that Captain is a solid record with a charming predilection for Brian Wilson. The epic ballad "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is Elton's "God Only Knows." The extras on this two-disc Deluxe Edition include "Philadelphia Freedom" and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," two No. 1 singles from the period. Disc 2 captures a previously unreleased concert at Wembley Stadium when Elton and his band premiered the entire album in sequence. Captain Fantastic may not achieve greatness, but it's definitely better than I remember. HHH 1/2
ERIC SNIDER
2000
GRAND PUBA
Elektra
The second solo offering from the former Brand Nubian leader starts humbly enough, with the call-and-response hook "Grand Puba is very special." 2000 peaks halfway through with the title track, but it's still one of those rare hip-hop records you can listen to all the way through. No stupid skits here, just Puba's consistently hilarious references (who else rhymes Fraggle Rock with Orville Redenbacher?) and DJ Alamo's beats, which can still get heads nodding 10 years later.
MAX LINSKY
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2006.