The beauty and genius of saxist Christoph Grab on this recent album of Thelonious Monk material is that there is not a hint of piano, thereby avoiding any haunting comparisons to the composer. Instead, Grab mixes up his sax selection with a front line of Lukas Thoeni/tp and Andreas Tschopp/tb with Banz Oester/b and Pius Baschnagel/dr keeping the bopping pulses bouncing.
The rich horn textures add much to the Spherical dimensions, with Grab’s tenor in charge over Bashnagel’s sticks on “Introspection” with some New Orleans fun on the crisp “We See”. Thoeni leads the sway around Oester’s lines on “Something In Blue” and pulls on the herky jerky-ed “”Work”. Grab’s alto is rich and bluesy with Oester on “Crepuscule With Nelly” and the rhythm team digs in deep on “Who Knows” with some lovely harmonies on the buoyant “Ugly Beauty”. Captain Beefheart meets Monk!