Carmen Staaf: Sounding Line

Thelonious Monk (1917 -1982) was often grouped with the bebop pianists of the late 1940s and early 1950s. But he was not bop. He was a pianistic world unto itself. Quirky, dissonant, often playful. Mary Lou Williams (1910 -1981) did not fit the bop category either. She came in before bop's advent. Her music was stylistically closer to Duke Ellington's eloquence, sass and swing.

Bop aside, pianist Carmen Staaf heard a musical kinship between these two 20th-century contemporaries. She puts this on display with her Sounding Line. Bop is mentioned only because the style, under the influence of alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, changed the world, and because Monk and Williams—a bit older than the bop pioneers—were not always toeing that line

Going deep into the worlds of these two pioneers, Staaf has conceived and executed an enchanting tribute, covering two of Monk's tunes, three of William's compositions and adding a couple of her own that were inspired by what might seem an odd couple, musically, but in whom Staaf found an allegiance of sorts.

"Scorpio," from Williams' most famous work, "Zodiac Suite," opens the show. This is a shuffling line-up set, and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire joins Staaf here. The music sounds like an Ellingtonian warmup in the Cotton Club, circa 1928. Spontaneity reigns here, as it does on the entire set.. Jump over Monk's "Bye-Ya" and we find Staff with clarinetist Ben Goldberg in the accompanist spot on "Libra," another piece from the "Zodiac Suite." Pensive and graceful, the sound has a light-footed, insouciant—in the most relaxed sense of the word—vibe.

Back to Monk's "Bye-Ya": Staaf is joined by bongo-ist John Santos (jazz needs more bongo-ists), who makes a case for his instrument with a snappy, crisp sound that fits the playful tune to perfection. Staaf sounds particularly inspired here. She sounds happy and carefree.

"Koolbonga" is taken from Williams' second most famous work, Black Christ Of The Andes (Folkways, 1964). One of Williams' sacred works, written after her conversion to Roman Catholicism, the music has a feeling of straight-ahead jazz groove creeping in between the pews, underlain by Goldberg's bass clarinet and darren johnson's fierce muted trumpet work.

Then we have "Monk's Mood," Staaf's otherworldly piano contribution to the recording. Inside the piano string work (a guess), combined with the subtle sustain from Dillon Vado's vibraphone, gives the sound an eerie, orchestral vibe, making it sound like the backdrop to one of Monk's dreams.

Sounding Line closes with two Staaf originals, "Boiling Point" and "The Water Wheel." The former, inspired by Monk's "Shuffle Boil," might be tagged, on a blindfold test, as a back-alley slither; the latter ends the album as it began, in a duet with trumpeter Akinmusire. Its nature is celebratory, a celestial nod to Thelonious Monk and Mary Lou Williams.