The music, mood and worldview of Thelonious Monk is presented by Dan Willis, who plays a wide variety of woodwinds to create a plethora of sonic portraits. He teams up with various incarnations of musical meeting with guitarist Pete McCann, keyboardist Ron Oswanski, bassists Evan Gregor-Kermit Driscoll, and drummers John Mettam-Ian Forman.
The quirkiness of Monk’s moods are in full view here, with Willis’ rich tenor dancing with McCann for a rich duet that finally leads into a group clippety clop of “Hackensack”, with his reed popping to Oswanski’s Rhodes on a dreamy “Eronel”. A collection of puffy reeds are blown with electronic noodling on “Crepuscule With Nellie”. A stretched out “Criss Cross” features some rich electric bass work from the hands of “Evan Gregor” and hints of Weather Report take place when Willis takes on the EWI and blows up a clever “Think Of One”. Bring the party hat for the celebration.