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T.S. Monk “Take One” Blue Note cd  

Well, more hits than misses for me this go 'round, Dan, which is not always the case with us.    Apologies for taking most of the month to get to this -- been a busy month.  Intestinal distress has confined me to home, today, and I figured I may as well prioritize this.      track 01 - Dahoud, but by whom.  Brassy trumpet.  Soprano-led sax section (never particularly cared for that sound).  Hi level of musicianship, not getting the gut feel.  Not sure I know the bari, but I appreciate it. Alto solo is nice, as well.   track 02 - Moose The Mooch.  At first was thinking it was a later Jug album I have.  That piano is, in a word, awful.  First tenor is a fun ride.  Is this your guy Percy France?  Got that rugged tenor sound, aggressive and a bit honky tonk.  Wait, second guy sounds MORE like him.  Second guy is definitely my preference.  I mean, could be the recording or the piano itself, but I'm not digging this guy at all.  Drummer seems to be pushing awfully hard, too.  Enjoying the tenor battle.  The brasher (first guy) -- could that be Arnett Cobb?  Both tenors have facility and vocabulary.  I'm sure this was fun to witness -- pianist be damned. track 03 - Recognize the tune, but no title coming.  Nice adjustment from the last tune.  Not just the feel, but here's a piano player embracing sensitivity.  Very tasteful.  I feel like I've heard this before, but my brain is non-functional today. track 04 - Broadway.  Dexter kind of ruined this tune for me.  There's him and then everybody else a few storeys below.  Is that a deep-sounding alto, a shallow tenor, or a C-melody?  Dude was pushing for it, but came up a bit short for me.  More here with the trumpet.  Sounds like guys pushing themselves to their absolute limits (which I appreciate), but they're a tick off in terms of execution.  Getting a Buddy Tate vibe here, making it all okay.  Doesn't seem quite as bold as Buddy, but whomever it is, it's hitting squarely.  Gotta be Buddy -- I feel like I'm getting swing-bullied, and he's the only guy who consistently does that for me.  Tone doesn't seem to be quite there, though (but it's live, so who knows).  This pianist is executing perfectly what the guy on track 2 didn't.   track 05 - Lester Leaps In, with a whole lot of control.  But, that's just fine.  Getting an almost Marsh vibe, here.  Controlled and tasteful.  No shortage of swing, either.  Took 'til the piano solo for me to realize there was no drummer.  Okay, I clearly should get these guys, as these guys are fully for real.  Fighting some sick, so using that as my excuse.  This is damned near perfect.  Friggin' flawless tenor work.  Could this be later Warne? track 06 - Another immediate recognition of tune, but damned if I can give you a title.  These guys seem to be fighting the tempo a bit (not the piano, but the drums, for sure).  No idea who the pianist is, but this is precisely the style that I don't care for.  Trouble with this tempo is, it quickly shows the flaws in the feel.  This one is a hard pass for me.  Drums get tighter after the bass solo, but I'm still not warming to it.  Barry Harris Trio live in SF is one of my favorite records.  This is not that.  I wish it were. track 07 -  Django.  Doesn't strike as being John Lewis, but the feel is all there.  This one hits precisely where the last one missed.  Seems like I should definitely know this group.  This is killin'.   track 08 - More Moose.  Clifford Jordan told a story about meeting him when I saw him in the early 80s.  "Barry Harris came up and said, 'Hey Cliff, Moose the Mooch is in the house,' I said, 'Say what?'  I met him.  He's a real guy."  Makes me smile every time.  Pianist with serious facility, if a bit more modern stylistically.  Don't recognize that alto tone, but there's something very familiar about the rhythmic phrasing.  Almost a tad clunky at points (think Arthur Blythe), but it's all there.  Recording sound cries Concord to me.  Maybe Mraz? track 09 - More Dahoud.  Head was tight.  Sax solo left my mind wandering.  Facility is here, but I'm not driven to the point of caring.  Trumpet solo hits a bit better, but suffers from the same thing.  Not a thing wrong, just misses my gut. track 10 - That's some seriously bad sound.  Bass reminds of Milt Hinton.  Pianist reminds me I have to get my piano tuned.  Sounds like an upright.  Drums hold this all together quite well.  At first, I didn't care for the drumming, but in the end, that's the part that resonated most. track 11 - More Broadway.  Snappy drums, good recording.  This works on every level.  Weird how similar tracks can hit so differently.  This has the snap of Miles' rhythm section with Red Garland and Philly Joe.  Okay, now on the coda, that certainly sounds like Gene Harris.  Mayhaps this is The Three Sounds?  Whatever it is, it hits squarely on all counts. track 12 - More Lester Leaping.  Bad recording sound. Vocabulary and facility are there.  Not great sound, but would be pretty good boot sound from 70s/80s.  Is this another Percy France thing?  (and aren't you glad my brain cramping stopping short of forgetting his last name in the moment?)  One thing I certainly appreciate about this -- not an ounce of bullshit. track 13 - More Django.  Don't care for the tempo nor the arrangement.  Okay, there's Golson, so this must be the Jazztet.  Much as I love Benny, he sometimes got a little too arrangement happy.  But my GAWD that man could play the saxophone.  Did Art have the most beautiful trumpet sound, ever?  Every time I hear him on trumpet, I feel a sense of loss for his near total transition to the flugelhorn for so many years. track 14 - Never remember the name of this (either time, here).  I always here Straighten Up And Fly Right, but I know that's not it.  This is not somebody I'm familiar with.  Again, has that Concord air about it.  Rightly or wrongly, gives the impression that it's derivative.  That's not a bad thing, just not an area where my ears tend to head.  Not a fan of the drummer.  Okay, I definitely have this by Scott Hamilton somewhere in the collection (YOUR fault, DAN!)  Punch tenor, but definitely not somebody I know. track 15 - Nice ending.   Now to see  how awful I did. For the love of... did I REALLY just mid-ID Billie's Bounce as Moose The Mooch TWICE!?!?! Also: "Tommy Flanagan and Kenny Burrell are correct! I thought this composition was pretty well known, a little surprised you didn't name it." Guess that explains why I loved that cut. 

This is supposed to be frowned upon by the mods.