Charlie Ballantine: Reflections/Introspection: The Music Of Thelonious Monk

Reflections/Introspection... follows-up guitarist Charlie Ballentine's Life is Brief: The Music of Bob Dylan, the guitarist's tribute to another (and very different type of) iconoclastic modern composer and one of the best albums of 2018. He absolutely bounces through this double-LP (one trio, one quartet) on a merry joyride through the compositions of "the onliest Monk."

"Monk has such an incredible catalogue that one of the big challenges we faced was what songs to choose and also what instrumentation to use," explains Ballentine. "There is just so much timeless material from Monk's trio work as well as his quartets with legendary saxophonists like 'Trane, Johnny Griffin, and Charlie Rouse that we decided to expand the project to a double LP with one LP being trio and the other LP being quartet."

There's no piano on this Monk tribute but even if there was, Ballentine's playing would make it irrelevant. He makes it sound just as easy if not easier to bend and twist and fracture notes—which Monk enjoyed so much—on guitar.

Ballentine first dives into the guitar trio setting with bassist Chris Parker and drummer Cassius Goens. Drums settle into the rhythm of "Bemsha Swing" just as the guitar begins to find its melody, and as Ballentine pulls Middle Eastern tinges into his improvisation, their "Swing" sounds like bolero and a gutbucket guitar-organ soul-jazz combo. (Also dig the toothsome seven-minute alternate take.) A cloud of jumbled electronic guitar sound floats into the opening of "Ugly Beauty," leading Ballantine to pick the melody out of the air as if by random guitar magic and meander through both the "ugly" and the "beautiful" sounds of his instrument. He nuzzles an affectionate solo version of "Pannonica" to end this trio set.

Saxophonist Amanda Gardier turns the trio into a quartet for the second set. Ballentine's guitar rings out the opening of "Brilliant Corners" with a perfectly odd, country twang. Saxophone and guitar play in unison before branching into their solos, where Gardier's hefty yet light sense of swing both stutters and sways into echoes of Monk's longtime foil, Rouse. Parker kicks in the door to "Green Chimneys" with swivel-hipped New Orleans drums, popping off like firecrackers while Ballentine chops out blue chords as if hewing them from solid rock: the sound of Wes Montgomery via James Blood Ulmer.

Monk would probably like Reflections/Introspection..., which would be high praise for music played in his honor.