Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday October 13th, 2010 with Bernard Stepien
Steve Lacy - Mal Waldron play Monk in Italy

Once in a while I have to make an easy program, easy to prepare and easy to listen. The combination Steve Lacy/Mal Waldron and Monks music falls into this category. I have been following both musicians for decades and I can day dream Monk's music, so the chances of getting lost are infinitesimal. Steve Lacy, who played with Monk for a few years, has been culturing Monk's music ever since then to the point of even maintaining his chops on this music on the entire Monk repertoire, an achievement when you consider the continuous production of his own music throughout his life. Thus Lacy was in a privileged position to be an expert in Monk's music down to the note. Tonight, we will inspect one of his duo with Mal Waldron recorded in 1992 in Italy at a remote little town of Vignola near Modena Jazz Festival on an obscure local record label. Particularly impressive on this recording is the version of Misterioso where each note is played with a different intonation and emotion and giving the illusion that there are two horn players instead of one.