Randy Weinstein: HarmoniMonk

A caution to Monkophiles of every variety: This is not your grandparents' Thelonious Monk, much less Charlie Rouse's or anyone else. Monk on a chromatic harmonica? Well, keep an open mind and try it. It may prove enjoyable, although this is not Toots Thielemans.

Here is a recording for the adventurous listener, especially if hearing a harmonica-tuba combination on "Straight, No Chaser" with the tuba chugging along with some rhythmic offset is not enough to leave you a bit nonplussed. "In Walked Bud" and "Ruby My Dear" are also off the beaten track. Literally. "In Walked Bud" will remind someone of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" with its odd mix of pulses, quarter-note triplets and 1940s Les Fordish Gibson intervention. "Ruby, My Dear" is a bit more toward the traditional side, if that is ever an appropriate description of Monk. But a good player can sigh and bend on a harmonica, and then suddenly rip into a rush of notes before allowing the guitar to speak once more. No matter how much Monk someone has heard, this, assuredly, is different, and attractively so. The improvisatory choruses on "Ruby" are expressive and heartfelt. At some point, any expectations to the contrary, the music is moving, arresting even. Randy Weinstein is a virtuoso player from New York, Chicago and other sundry points, deeply schooled in the blues harmonica and other varieties of the mouth organ. For players who have ever wondered what the full spectrum of jazz possibilities of the instrument are, Weinstein takes them there. Open mind, open ears.

At 37 minutes, this is short but compelling introduction to yet another way of imagining Monk. Weinstein avers, "My aim is to eventually present all 70 monk compositions...but each rendition takes weeks...I've now reached 21 tunes. I figure I have decent prospects to make it to the finish line." Let us hope so. This is part of Weinstein's larger HarmoniMonk project, and Clark Terry had nothing on Weinstein when he soloed on "Bemsha Swing." Seriously.

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