Jazz Articles about Monty Alexander

Monty Alexander: Impressions in Blue

by Joel Roberts
December 12, 2003

Monty Alexander covers a wide swath of musical territory on Impressions in Blue. The Jamaican-born pianist leads his fine trio (with Hassan Shakur on bass and Mark Taylor on drums) from the Caribbean to Spain to the American West, with stops in the land of Duke and the kingdom of Cole, over the course of the eleven numbers here. A versatile musician with chops to spare, Alexander is equally at home on adaptations of classical pieces like Rodrigo's ...

Monty Alexander Speaks

by Franz A. Matzner
October 28, 2003

Despite years spent in American, Monty Alexander’s speech remains full of the infectiously lilting, joyously expressive, idiomatic contours of his Kingston childhood. And it seems he is always laughing. It may be that this is also simply a matter of culture, but I don’t think so. I think the laughter is a part of who Alexander is. It’s always there, buoying his highly discursive, insightful, and firmly opinionated statements with a resolute optimism. But make no mistake, Alexander’s optimism is ...

Monty Alexander: Impressions in Blue

by Franz A. Matzner
July 25, 2003

Monty Alexander's latest trio release instructs the listener on how wide a spectrum of hues fall within the category called blue. More precisely, Alexander reveals that there are definitely a few shades that the majority of jazz albums—an almost nauseating number of which incorporate the word ‘blue’ in their album and song titles—have ignored. You won’t find mournful midnight tones, or steel, navy, and indigo, nor the intense neon flare, or even the subtle, infinitely lamenting shades ...

Monty Alexander Trio: Impressions in Blue

by C. Michael Bailey
June 25, 2003

Monty Alexander has been having his way with his repertoire under the Telarc umbrella, and the results so far have been uniformly fine. Impressions in Blue is the Jamaican pianist’s fifth outing for the label, preceded by the highly acclaimed My America , Goin’ Yard , Monty Meets Sly and Robbie , and Stir It Up: the Music of Bob Marley . Impressions in Blue is dedicated to the late bassist Ray Brown, for whom Mr. Alexander was an almost ...

Benny Golson Quintet: That's Funky

by AAJ Staff
January 22, 2003

Looking back past the rule of Parliament to the age of Horace Silver, Benny Golson’s That's Funky pays tribute to Louis Armstrong through two renditions of his popular favorite “Mack the Knife." While the opening “funky version" starts off a bit sluggish and includes some pinched soloing by Nat Adderley, Monty Alexander’s firm comps make it swing and Golson’s smooth lines give it at least three pennies worth of class. On the “modern bebop version," Adderley’s lines are much more ...

Monty Alexander: My America

by AAJ Staff
January 17, 2003

What does it mean to be an American?

For Jamaican-born pianist Monty Alexander, it means one thing – music. Yet within that one thing lies an impressive diversity which Alexander tackles...impressively.

These tunes range from pop standards like Kurt Weill’s “Mack the Kinife" and Nat Cole’s “Straighten Up and Fly Right" (sung by Nat’s son Freddy) to soul classics like Rev. Al Green’s “Love and Happiness" and Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing." Speaking of “sex" (another great American pastime), Alexander lays ...

Monty Alexander: My America

by C. Michael Bailey
August 1, 2002

I want to go back to the Islands...

Monty Alexander is the Jamaican Gene Harris. Both play with a dual-fisted, churchy style. Where Harris is the pinnacle of blues piano, Alexander rules the Caribbean rhythms. These rhythms and flavors he infuses into every piece on his new release, My America. This is an interesting collection that ranges from covers of Cole Porter’s “Don’t Fence Me In" to James Brown’s “Sex Machine." Unlike a lot of crossover recordings of this type, ...