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| ARTIST: MONTY ALXANDER |
CD:
UPLIFT 2 YEAR: 2013 |
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Price: $10.00 |
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1. Battle Hymm
2. When The Saint Go Marching In
3. I Love You Madly
4. You Are My Sunshine
5. St. Thomas
6. Night Mist Blues
7. Montevideo
8. What A
Friend - Intro
9. What A Friend
10. Close Enough For Love
11. Got To Go |
MUSICIANS
Monty Alexander: Piano
John
Clayton: Bass
Jeff Hamilton:
Drums
Hanson Shakur - Bass
(5,6,10)
Frits Landesbergen
-drums (5,6,10)
Produced by:
John Lee
Executive Producer: Lisa Broderick
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Jamaica
is known for the undulating sounds of reggae, but it
also contributed mightily to the jazz continuum. Dizzy
Reese, Ernest Ranglin, and Harry Beckett are from
Jamaica, but perhaps the island’s best-known jazz export
is Monty Alexander, a pianist that’s been enthralling
jazz fans for decades. Alexander’s 2011 album Uplift
topped the JazzWeek chart twice that year—and when
JazzWeek charted the most-played CDs of the year, Uplift
was #5. Between that CD and Harlem-Kingston Express
Live, Alexander has officially dominated the US Radio
Charts with three # 1 spots, all in the summer of 2011.
Harlem-Kingston Express (Motema, also 2011) was
nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Reggae Album
category.
Born in Kingston 1944, the young
Alexander took to the 88s as something of a prodigy. One
night at age five he had observed a pianist play “White
Christmas” in his home at a Christmas party. His mother
recalls seeing young Monty playing that same tune with
both hands the very next night. At age eight he took
classical piano lessons but he’d already began loving
the American jazz and Great American songbook pop (Tony
Bennett, Nat “King” Cole) he heard on the radio. As a
teenager, seeing Nat “King” Cole and Louis Armstrong
perform had a major impact upon him. He’d also become
interested in Jamaican music—Alexander would play with
Clue J & His Blues Blasters, substituting for their
regular pianist Aubrey Adams when he became unavailable.
While few could conceive of it at the time, this band
would prove to be a major watershed in Jamaican music
history, incubating the talents of not only Alexander
but Ernest Ranglin, Rico Rodriguez, and Roland Alphonso,
all who’d go on to become prime movers in Jamaican ska,
rocksteady, and reggae. By the end of 1961, Alexander’s
family relocated to that land of opportunity, the USA,
where he further honed his skills. While playing with
Art Mooney’s orchestra in Las Vegas, he was spotted by a
couple of high rollers, namely Frank Sinatra and
Ermenigildo “Jilly” Rizzo, singer/show business legend
and Sinatra’s pal/aide and New York City club owner,
respectively. Rizzo hired Alexander to be the house
pianist for Jilly’s Saloon, a notorious hang-out for
show biz types, jazz musicians, and assorted other hip
clientele. Not only did he accompany Sinatra when he
performed at Jilly’s, but Alexander met a jazz legend
there that became both a friend and employer, vibes
master Milt Jackson (of the Modern Jazz Quartet, who had
a parallel solo career). Other singers Alexander has
shone behind include Mary Stallings, Ernestine Anderson,
Natalie Cole (who asked Alexander to accompany her on
her tribute album to her father Unforgettable), Tony
Bennett, and Bobby McFerrin. Furthermore, he played with
ace of the bass Ray Brown and trumpet titans Dizzy
Gillespie and Clark Terry. From the 1970s on, Alexander
took the jazz world by storm with a series of
internationally well-received albums on the European MPS
and American Concord and Telarc labels.
Monty
Alexander’s distinctive sound emanates from two
sources—firstly, he’s infused the inspiration of iconic
pianists Oscar Peterson, Nat “King” Cole, Ahmad Jamal,
and Errol Garner with Jamaican sounds past and present.
Secondly, and perhaps most crucially, Alexander
indubitably loves what he is doing and he communicates
that to listeners in an engaging, infectious manner.
Talk about having one’s cake and eating it too—Alexander
has mastered that concept for the best of both worlds.
“I play for me but I also play for the audience…I am
even more satisfied when I make people happy.” Alexander
has no truck with elitist “artistic” notions—while he
doesn’t pander to listeners, he doesn’t place himself
“above” them either. “Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington,
and Louis Armstrong—these artists reached out to the
audience.” Alexander’s latest for Jazz Legacy
Productions, Uplift 2—a sequel of sorts to 2011’s
Uplift—virtually epitomizes his philosophy and approach
to jazz gloriously. Reunited with bassist John Clayton
and drummer Jeff Hamilton—with whom he made some of his
very best trio recordings in the mid-1970s—Uplift 2
bursts out of the gate with two tunes that, in lesser
hands, might come off as corny or clichéd—“Battle Hymn
(of the Republic)” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
But to Alexander, this “familiarity” presents an
opportunity he relishes. “I like to take old wine and
put it into new bottles,” he says. “It’s not so much the
song, but what you do with it.” Alexander’s trio takes
these warhorses and renders them with impishly
affectionate humor, invention, and gregarious swing.
Clayton and Hamilton are the thunder and wind to
Alexander’s summertime cloudburst. When asked about the
chemistry of this configuration of musicians from long
ago—every so often we’d get together”—Alexander
affirmed, “We just clicked from the get-go.”
Which is not to sleight
Alexander’s “other” trio on this set, Hassan Shakur on
bass and Frits Landesbergen on drums. After a
tantalizingly angular intro, this Alexander trio swings
the standard “St. Thomas” like it was both the first
time and maybe the last time they’d have at it—it’s
jovial and assertive, breezy and volatile. Ahmad Jamal’s
“Night Mist Blues” is a panorama—deep noir mood,
rippling piano (echoes of McCoy Tyner?), richly pensive
blues feeling, Dave Brubeck-like urbanity, restless but
almost celebratory reminiscence, and Shakur and
Landesbergen support and stimulate like nobody’s
business.
“At the end of the day,” Alexander
says, “it’s about touching somebody’s heart.” Uplift 2
succeeds in that spectacularly, while it also takes up
residence in the mind (including that region that
controls the tapping of your foot). Without fanfare or
pretense, Monty Alexander continues to celebrate the
aspects of directness and delight in jazz. “It’s a joy
and a privilege to come out of the gate and get to the
point!,” says Alexander. Need proof? Listen, learn, and
love.
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