If
Thelonious Monk had been born 20 years later in Europe, he may indeed have been
Misha Mengelberg. No other player/composer/improviser with the exception of
Steve Lacy has been able to so completely enter into the harmonic mindset of
Monk (and for that matter, the technical genius of his counterpart
Herbie Nichols). And as much as that would be enough for so many on the scene today, it is a compliment the iconoclastic Mr.
Mengelberg would shun because it is only a part of what he does. This glorious double CD represents literally the two days
Mengelberg spent in Chicago in 1998. One CD is a studio session, the other a live date.
Mengelberg wasted no time in exploiting the many talents of his collaborators, who include saxophonists
Fred Anderson,
Ken Vandermark and
Ab Baars, cellist
Fred Lonberg-Holm, bassists
Kent Kessler and
Wilbert de Joode, and drummers
Hamid Drake and
Martin van Duyunhoven. The first CD is a wildly mixed bag. First there is the
Mengelberg reading of
Monk's
"Eronel." With
Vandermark and
Drake as his sidemen, without a bassist,
Mengelberg has already changed the model. With the hollow spot in the rhythm section apparent, he just lets it stand, an element that needs not be filled because of
Vandermark's fine, swinging, soulful solo.
Mengelberg himself is dancing around with
Drake, trading fours and comping just persuasively enough to give
Vandermark the nod for another chorus or two. When he takes his own solo you can see why there isn't a bassist: There's no room, with
Drake claiming all the space around the piano and
Mengelberg alternating lines from
Nichols,
Tatum, and
Monk while slipping his own extended 12ths (!) into a melodic interval framework that is just breathtaking. The same is true of the other
Monk contribution here:
"Off Minor." Here, it's all
Mengelberg and his spooky, shaded, diminished sevenths that hold the tune while
Vandermark blows under the authority of his piano. The various quartets and trios that make up the remainder of disc one are truly beautiful examples of what
Mengelberg does as an improviser: He sheds all preconceived notion of what music is supposed to be when made on the spot and spontaneously composes with his groups. There are shards of meaning in each phrase as these groups eke out a syntax and structural conception for each piece. Disc two, the live set, is perhaps even more remarkable. It begins with the nearly 30-minute
"Chicago Solo." Mengelberg gives his audience a full-on look into his method, madness, and mind as a musician. He creates no less than ten themes and their variations, and moves them through strange configurations of
Puccini and
Beethoven before
Tristano and
Teddy Wilson appear as ghosts to carry them off. This flows seamlessly into a gorgeous reading of
"'Round Midnight," which flows seamlessly into a duo, another solo, and finally a nearly seven-minute version of
"Body and Soul with a sextet that is notable not only for the sensitivity of
Mengelberg's adaption, but the empathy he coaxes from his musicians and the depth of emotion conveyed -- even as
Baars arm-wrestles with his saxophone and his own stormy relationship to such a beautiful standard. This is easily one of
Mengelberg's finest recorded moments and shows him in all of his roles, shining with rough-hewn elegance and finely crafted edges. ~ Thom Jurek
