George Dumitriu: Monk on Viola

In an NPR interview, avant-garde composer Volker Bertelmann—who wrote the soundtrack All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix, 2022)—talked about re-imagining music, saying: "You don't have to paint the river to express something about the river." That attitude applies to George Dumitriu's Monk on Viola, an unusually inventive reading of Thelonious Monk's work. The Romanian multi-instrumentalist and composer holds several international prizes and he has worked with Benny Golson, Ambrose Akinmusire, Michael Moore - Clarinet, the National Opera & Ballet Amsterdam, and many others. A virtuoso on violin, viola, and guitar, the Amsterdam-based artist led the group, Dumitrio on two albums, played in the Kaja Draksler Octet and quintet, and has co-led an eclectic mix of Eastern European hybrid recordings. On Monk on Viola, Dumitriu's first solo release, he interprets nine of the legend's best-known compositions.

Monk's unforgiving keyboard style was complex, with unconventional harmonic and rhythmic structures, dissonance, and angular melodies. Dumitriu's viola trades the more jarring aspects of Monk's music in mesmerizing ways. He approaches complicated compositions with a clear uncluttered style, but he does not avoid experimentation as on a barely recognizable "Round Midnight." Dumitriu's accentuation of aural waves and Eastern European folk influences bring a purposeful eccentricity to "Locomotive." He whirls through an energetic "Boo Boo's Birthday," and a peculiar take on "Crepuscule with Nellie" where he literally drags the piece across the viola's strings.

Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington but Dumitriu's boundless explorations reveal the depths of these pieces in a different way. Even the more jazz-oriented covers such as "Ask Me Now" offer a fresh analysis. In de-emphasizing complex mechanical rhythms and accentuating fluid phrasing, Dumitriu exposes the vital facets of Monk's role in the development of bebop and post-bop styles. Monk on Viola succeeds in offering an innovative look at some very familiar music.