“It’s good to have a job!”
Which more than anything else captures the enthusiasm of pianist Monty Alexander as he opened his 100 minute set before a packed and enthusiastic audience at Vibratos Wednesday night. Not only was the evening a celebration of Mr. Alexander’s latest album release Love Notes, but the event was filmed as part of a documentary of the famed Jamaican-born artist, with each song summarizing a part of his illustrious career.
Digging deep into his roots from the outset, Alexander began the evening with an a cappella rendition of “Banana Boat Song” before going to his piano and hitting full stride with his team of drummer Jason Brown and bassist Luke Sellick even grabbing his melodica to throw in a bit of “Hava Nagila” for even a deeper taproot of inspiration. From there, Alexander weaved in rich stories about his career and inspirations between songs, gave a lovely encompassing intro to a calyso’d read of “We’ve Only Just Begun” and then digging into moods of spiritual and gospel social messages with a liberating “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”.
Alexander then brought in his inspiration of James Bond movies to juxtapose with his early days of recording ska music from his homeland, crossing his hands and volleying back and forth with Sellick on a fun and reggae’d read of the “007 Theme”. The club was then taken on an Iberian journey as Brown supplied castanets and a table dance with his brushes as he pulsed under Alexander’s Moorish mood of “Concierto Do Aranjuez”. The trio then showed their bop chops as Sellick bluesed up around Alexander’s classy and glassy ivories on a Nat Cole-inspired “I Just Can’t See For Looking” before a dash of Monk was thrown in along with the “Flintstones” theme for a Jamaican jerked read of “I Got Rhythm”. By the time Alexander and company gave tribute to Bob Marley on a gospel’d “No Woman No Cry”, and a sweaty “King Tubby” the famed artist had gotten his world view and attitude on the connection of music and life together summarized in the upbeat and earthy “Out Of Many, One People”.
Few artists are able to celebrate the differences that we each bring to the world, and at 78 years young, Alexander shows that there is still much to be encouraged about, that it takes all kinds of colors to make both an artistic, and world palate.
Upcoming shows at Vibrato include Bill Cantos 1008, The Yellowjackets 10/09, Seth McFarlane-John Proulx 10/14 and Terrell Edwards 10/27