Sean McGowan

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Articles

Sean McGowan: Sphere

Read "Sphere" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
December 14, 2011

For many jazz lovers, pianist Thelonious Monk's solo recordings of his own compositions are an exquisite pleasure. The simplicity of a single instrument reveals the compositions' elegant architecture, allowing their angular beauty to become refreshingly clear. The challenge and joy of recording Monk's music solo continues to entice musicians, thus creating afresh some of the twentieth century's most enduring artworks. Guitarist Sean McGowan pays homage to Monk on Sphere, titled after Monk's unique middle name. McGowan has drawn ...

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Album Review

Sean McGowan: Sphere

by David Rickert
November 23, 2011

Those who seek to create a tribute album of Thelonious Monk music face one big obstacle: how do you capture Monk's idiosyncratic style without sounding like a pale imitation? You could just record cover versions of his songs and leave it at that, but the end result wouldn't really capture the pianist's oddball genius, so what would be the point? Perhaps Sean McGowan has found the best solution: adapt Monk's music to a different instrument than piano. Sphere, ...

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Album Review

Sean McGowan: Indigo

by Martin Gladu
September 3, 2008

"When the smith gets wildly excited, 'tis best to agree with him," warns the Gaelic proverb. Needless to say when a person's full name translates into “Oldest Son of the Smith" the weight of such patronymic suddenly takes a whole new importance. Fortunately, guitarist Sean McGowan need not resort to swinging heavy apparatus to elicit the same reverence fellow clansmen vowed his ancestral namesake. Quite on the contrary, he is armed with only a Brad Nickerson-made hollow body guitar that ...