From Reflections by saxophonist Steve Lacy (1958) to Monk: fifteen piano reflections by Stefano Travaglini (2020), Thelonious Monk’s wiki page lists dozens of tribute albums over the decades. Yet it’s likely no Monk enthusiast has ever heard anything quite as compelling and fascinating yet off kilter and bizarre as veteran harmonica master Randy Weinstein’s wildly adventurous (and cleverly titled) Harmonimonk.
Those who dare to take a gander to his feisty interpretations of everything from a whimsical, down-home, honking back porch dance through “bright Mississippi” (featuring the snappy jangle and pluck of guitarist Michaela Gomez) to a buoyant, percussive dance with bassist George Rush on “green chimneys” can chalk this one up, like many other passion projects, to pandemic downtime.
During lockdown, the versatile, New York based (via Chicago, where he developed a unique blues harp style) chromatic and diatonic harmonica player used his free time to learn some new recording techniques and start recording unique interpretations of Monk compositions. This project has seven tracks, so it’s very much just an appetizer for what he’ll be unleashing in the future, assuming he reaches his stated goal of recording all 70 Monk compositions.
That will surely involve a great deal of “out there” arrangements like those he’s blessing us with here, but as strange as it may sound to have “bye-ya” (one of the more lighthearted, tuneful pieces) performed as a fusion of harmonica and heavy duty drum samples – and “In Walked Bud” as a distorted, oddly filtered, old-timey jam by harmonica and Gomez’s angular guitars – it falls perfectly in line with Monk’s inventive approach.
Like some of Weinstein’s artful work here, Monk’s quirky (some would say humorous) playing was percussive and sparse, yes, truly angular, with complex and dissonant harmonies and unusual intervals and rhythms. Thus, Weinstein is truly on point making this an eclectic tribute for the ages. It’s also nice to see him play a ballad “Ruby My Dear” a little simpler and close to the vest, so that we may focus on the beauty of his playing. By the time we get to the end of his bouncy, New Orleans styled free for all on “Straight No Chaser,” we’re primed for Volumes two, three and even more down the line.
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