u/secondlifing

This week, he released three albums in his solo piano series. One was focused on Mozart, but volumes 3 and 4 were focused on Monk (v.3 Monk Meditations and v.4 Monk Movements).

The Movement album seems closer to the spirit and sound of Monk. To my ears, Meditations seeks to round off some of the sharp edges to make the music more palatable. To be clear, neither of these albums consists primarily of Monk compositions. At least half of the songs on each volume list Batiste and his "recording arranger" as songwriters. But even those songs (like the one linked above) sometimes lean heavily on a Monk motif (from Brilliant Corners in this case).

If you've listened to either album, let me know what you think.

And more importantly, which pianist, do you think was the best interpreter of Monk's music? Who took it to new and interesting places?

First new album in 15 years, and it's funky!

I do wish that he hired a vocalist to sing these tunes. Several of them are original compositions (like the one linked above).

Let me know what you think.

I've been building a playlist of some of my favorite groove based jazz that pushes the envelope harmonically (and melodically at times) the way post-bop and even free jazz does. I call the genre post-bop funk since it combines two of my favorite styles of music.

Some of the artists focus primarily on this style:

The Pharaohs

Catalyst

Steve Coleman and Five Elements, M-BASE

Donald Byrd (before he went more mainstream smooth-jazz funk)

Ornette Coleman with Prime Time

Tony Allen

Jamaaladeen Tacuma

While for others it's a short excursion:

Archie Shepp

Sun Ra

Miles Davis' On the Corner album

Does anyone else enjoy this type of music? Do you have suggestions for artists that I should consider adding?