Search - Monty Alexander :: Steaming Hot

Turbo-charged

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 07/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A true value package, containing two of Monty's better CD's and over 20 tunes. I have a slight preference for the first (originally "Full Steam Ahead"), if only because of the presence of Ray Brown.



When Monty is on his game (and how often isn't he?), there simply is no pianist who is more fun to catch live (and that includes Oscar). His playing is full of play, and he makes it everybody's game--a stunning use of variety and surprise in ways that keep his rhythm sections on time and his listeners dancing in their seats. Listen to his felicitous chatter on "Happy Talk." He alternates a Wynton Kelly swinging right hand with Shearingesque block chords, then moves to Oscar-like melodic power in the left hand. And he takes the melody into unexpected yet accessible places that even Ahmad Jamal might overlook. Most importantly, his rhythm section catches the scent and joins him in the chase--the mighty Ray Brown supplying the power and momentum of the primary journey while Frank Gant catches and highlights every one of the adventurer's delightfully Quixotic side-trips.



Of Monty's recordings in print, this studio album perhaps represents as well as any the explosiveness of his live performances, unless "Live at Montreux" is still available. Or if you can find it, no recording by any instrumentalist swings harder than Monty's early l970's LP "We've Only Just Begun," with its exhilarating marathon romp on "It Could Happen to You.""