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Tony Monaco: The Definition of Insanity
The popular quote referenced in this CD's title has been attributed to many--most frequently to Albert Einstein. With this fine offering, organ virtuoso Tony Monaco steers clear of Sisyphean do-overs and delivers eleven diverse and well-performed tracks. “Cars Trucks Buses" by Phish's Page McConnell kicks the session off with a hefty, “short'nin' bread" B3 cooker. From this slick get-go, Monaco shows he's got A1 jazz chops and his colleagues are right there with him on the trip. ...
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Did you order it? Somebody ordered the party platter, because B3 maestro Tony Monaco is delivering. His music is for all intents and purposes a celebration. With The Definition of Insanity, a reference to doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, he confesses to be under the influence of the same mania as the legends Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff, Reuben Wilson, Richard “Groove" Holmes, and Jimmy McGriff. If this man is insane, I ...
read more2018 Hope College Jazz Organ Summit
2018 Hope College Jazz Organ Summit featuring Tony Monaco, Gerard Gibbs, and Dr. Lonnie Smith Hope College Holland, Michigan March 9-11, 2018 Back in the fall of 2016, a small liberal arts college on the banks of Lake Michigan decided to serve as the epicenter of activity aimed at gaining more respect for the art of jazz organ playing. Over the course of that weekend, artists and students alike would bond over their commonalities and ...
read more2016 Hope College Jazz Organ Summit
Jazz Organ Summit Hope College Holland, Michigan September 9-10, 2016 Located in Western Michigan along the banks of Lakes Michigan and Macatawa, the small college town of Holland is not the type of place you might imagine for a gathering of musicians, students and jazz organ aficionados. Nonetheless, this quaint spot would serve as host to a very unique two-day event that was the brainchild of organist Tony Monaco. Working with Hope College, a small ...
read moreTony Monaco: Taking Jazz Organ to the Summit
Columbus, Ohio native Tony Monaco is primed and ready to place jazz organ in a whole new spotlight. Although he has been a playing musician for most of his life, it has been during the past sixteen years that he has made the biggest strides as an artist. A gifted educator with a unique approach to instruction, Monaco recently sat down to discuss his past experiences and to promote a major event that he has spearheaded with the help of ...
read moreTony Monaco Trio at BLU Jazz+
Tony Monaco Trio BLU Jazz+ Akron,Ohio November 27, 2015 When it comes to jazz hotspots in Ohio, the choices are relatively small. All that changed about a year ago when developer Tony Troppe and VP of Talent and Events Mike Wyatt II got together to put Akron on the map as a jazz destination with the opening of BLU Jazz+. With live jazz every Wednesday through Saturday evenings, the club has the distinction of recently ...
read moreTony Monaco: Furry Slippers
Through nine releases, primarily from his home studio in jny: Columbus, Ohio, Tony Monaco has proved that he's a solid link in the hip Hammond B-3 organ chain that reaches from contemporaries such as Wil Blades and Joey DeFrancesco all the way back to Jimmy Smith and other founders of the Hammond groove. At a recent Java Jazz Festival (in Indonesia), Monaco met drummer Greg Fundis and guitarist Fareed Haque, and the three hit it off so well that they ...
read moreTony Monaco: Celebration
If organists Shirley Scott and Jimmy Smith had formed some sort of a musical union, the offspring would no doubt have been Tony Monaco. Manifesting the melodicism of the former, the orchestral sensibilities of the latter and virtuosity of both, Monaco has become one of the most versatile and dazzling performers on the Hammond B3. The limited edition two-CD Celebration, on Monaco's own Chicken Coop label finds The organist in the company of various collaborators and in ...
read moreTony Monaco: Vital Organs
Tony Monaco Live at the Orbit Room Chicken Coup Records 2008 Don Hales Unified String Theory Chicken Coup Records 2008
Tony Monaco comes from the Jimmy Smith school of organists who use groove to interact successfully with audiences. At a young age, Monaco was faced with an obstacle: neuralgic amyotrophy, a disease closely ...
read moreTony Monaco and Don Hales: Tonymoon for Two
Organist Tony Monaco is Johannes Brahms to Jimmy Smith's Ludwig van Beethoven. He is the keeper of the flame, or, more appropriately, the bar keep of the chicken shack, and the ambassador of the chitlin' circuit. Over the past decade, Monaco has moved to the front of the class in organ jazz, releasing a string of critically acclaimed recordings. Monaco adds two more, one as leader and one as side man to guitarist Don Hales.
Tony Monaco ... read moreTony Monaco & Friends: Back At The Chicken Shack
Accepting the torch of seminal B3 organist Jimmy Smith is one thing--holding it is another. But in the same way that Johannes Brahms carried on the legacy of Beethoven, so Tony Monaco serves Jimmy Smith. A longtime Summit Records label item, Monaco here steps out with his own imprint, Chicken Coup Records, releasing three discs and playing on two of them.
Monaco has already made a significant mark with albums including Let's Bop, Burnin' Grooves, Master Chops T, Intimately Live ...
read moreTony Monaco: East to West
Launching a new label that remains a division of Summit Records, Tony Monaco honors organist Jimmy Smith and a generation of groove-oriented artists who have followed. His “I'll Remember Jimmy starts off the album: it's an up-tempo, blues-oriented smoker that lets his organ/guitar trio light up the path for all to see and experience. He leads the way with an in-depth rhythmic groove and colorful harmonic colors that capture the original essence.
The rest of the session continues ...
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