The songbook of Thelonious Sphere Monk is given a guitar trio treatment by six stringer Greg Skaff and his mates bassist Leon Lee Dorsey and legendary bop drummer Mike Clark. Clark is in comfort food mode here, snapping like snow peas to create hip reads of “Well You Needn’t” with his cymbal riding the whip for Dorsey on the fun “Blue Monk.” Skaff’s clean lines work well as he glides over the clippety-clop of “Monk’s Dream” and is reflective with the sublime bassist on “Ugly Beauty,” honking his horn for effect on the hoot of “Little Rootie Tootie.” The trio skips with delight on “Epistrophy”; you can picture the composer dancing to these in your mind.
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