Xhosa Cole: On a Modern Genius (Vol 1) review | John Fordham's jazz album of the month
(Stoney Lane Records)The Birmingham-born jazz star pays tribute to a master of modern music, with tap-dance rhythms and Heidi Vogel’s vocals adding pep to proceedingsFew have doubted that African American pianist/composer Thelonious Monk was a genius of modern music, as this album title attests, but the acclaimed 28-year-old Birmingham-born saxophonist Xhosa Cole catches Monk’s wild spirit as well as the legacy of his great compositions.Ever since Monk’s emergence among the midnight-jamming subversives of jazz’s revolutionary early-1940s bebop movement, his rhythmically jagged, melodically circuitous music was revered – and even feared – by improvisers. His playing would ascend, only to suddenly stop with a crash or jump a sudden chasm; he would lay harmonic booby-traps that invited escapes in shambling melodic runs. Even the great John Coltrane described missing a Monk chord change as like falling into an empty elevator shaft. But Cole will surprise even the most devout buffs, and hook the most unsuspecting of jazz newbies too. Continue reading...
(Stoney Lane Records)
The Birmingham-born jazz star pays tribute to a master of modern music, with tap-dance rhythms and Heidi Vogel’s vocals adding pep to proceedings
Few have doubted that African American pianist/composer Thelonious Monk was a genius of modern music, as this album title attests, but the acclaimed 28-year-old Birmingham-born saxophonist Xhosa Cole catches Monk’s wild spirit as well as the legacy of his great compositions.
Ever since Monk’s emergence among the midnight-jamming subversives of jazz’s revolutionary early-1940s bebop movement, his rhythmically jagged, melodically circuitous music was revered – and even feared – by improvisers. His playing would ascend, only to suddenly stop with a crash or jump a sudden chasm; he would lay harmonic booby-traps that invited escapes in shambling melodic runs. Even the great John Coltrane described missing a Monk chord change as like falling into an empty elevator shaft. But Cole will surprise even the most devout buffs, and hook the most unsuspecting of jazz newbies too. Continue reading...
