Monty Alexander: Jazz Pianist Extraordinaire.



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Pianist Monty Alexander
Photo courtesy:bosquesonoro.blogspot.com

Yoshi's Jazz Night Club's artist relations/talent coordinator, and management, finally managed to align their musical stars correctly and persuaded jazz pianist, Monty Alexander and his quartet to take a detour from their busy touring schedule and make a stop at their San Francisco location for a one-night performance. These days the quartet goes by the name: The Harlem-Kingston Express. No doubt a reference to Alexander's New York-Jamaica musical roots. Anyhow, this exciting musical Express found its way to San Francisco on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 for an 8:00pm show that thrilled the large crowd of Alexander fans, literally out of their seats.

I wanted to see Monty Alexander live, but could never seem to find him in my neck of the woods. I heard a lot of his music on radio and on CDs, especially the work he did with the great bassist Ray Brown and I knew that he was a talented pianist. Moreover, he was from the island of Jamaica, as was another elite jazz pianist that I admired: The great Wynton Kelly. So I made the trip into the city to hear him perform with his quartet.

I must admit that the Monty Alexander Quartet exceeded my expectations. This 'Express' has tons of rhythmic energy and horse power, under its hood; I actually found myself giving them two standing ovations with the rest of the audience; and standing ovations are not casual for me. But the performance of the group was exhilarating, exciting, joyous, enlightening and filled with humor. I think that anyone who attended the show had  to come away feeling that they had been entertained by an outstanding group of musicians, and that Monty Alexander had matched his advance billing as a consummate professional jazz pianist, with a performance bordering on virtuoso.

It was a Wednesday evening, and a large crowd turned out for the show. I am sure this must have made the musicians feel really good about performing in San Francisco. 

Drummer Winard Harper
Photo courtesy:washingtondcnetwork.ning.com

The first on stage was drummer Winard Harper, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and whose influences include Max Roach, Art Blakey and Billy Higgins. He has played with jazz icons Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Betty Carter and is virtuosic on the drum, as well as the West African balafon (marimba).

Up next on stage was the ultra-versatile bassist Lorin Cohen from Chicago, Illinois, who has played extensively throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, The Middle East, and has been with Monty Alexander since 2005.



bassist Lorin Cohen
Photo courtesy: robertaonheart.com

Rounding out the quartet was the Grammy-award winning, self taught, multi-percussionist Bobby Thomas Jr., who was an original member of the legendary fusion rock band Weather Report and has performed along side David Sanborn, Stan Getz, Herby Mann and Jaco Pastorius. 

Percussionist Bobby Thomas Jr.

It is doubtful whether many in the audience were aware of the sheer artistic weight of musical talent confronting them; by the end of the evening, most were staggered, but thrilled by the power, force and rhythmic displacement of the Harlem-Kingston Express. 

The quartet got going with three "warm up" tunes. The first was a rhythm-rich, uptempo calypso tune that, in retrospect, set the tone for evening ; the second was a reggae-flavored number that got an excited reaction from the audience when Bobby Thomas' percussion and Winard Harper's drums got into a spirited rhythmic conversation. Alexander began to display his piano mastery in the third tune, eliciting murmurs from audience as they began to pick up on his wizardry. He dropped a number of recognizable quotes into his solo, one of which was the Jamaica folk hit "Banana Boat Song" that got a section of the crowd into a spontaneous sing-along. A bridge was now formed between quartet and audience; one became an extension of the other. The atmosphere in the room became looser; less reserved; joy broke through, shining like a harvest moon for the remainder of the evening.

Sensing a musical vein to be mined, the band dug deeper into their reggae bag and brought out Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry." Alexander's piano was like a musical intoxicant laced with a Bobby Thomas Jr. percussion and Lorin Cohen bass mix that made the room giddy. 

Alexander is accomplished in any music genre, he displayed this facility and introduced some variety into the program with a reprise of the 1953 Frank Sinatra hit "Young at Heart" which he performed in a style reminiscent of the legendary pianist Art Tatum; then he quietly changed styles to capture the magic of one of his pianistic influences, another legend: Nat "King" Cole.

Monty Alexander, could do no wrong, and he knew it!

He took a short break to have a conversation with the patrons. He recounted his emergence as a pianist working in the gangster-filled entertainment emporiums of Miami, Florida, where he was 'spotted' by the opportunistic New York restaurateur/entertainer, Jilly Rizzo, who brought him to the attention of singer Frank Sinatra. As associations do, especially in the entertainment industry, this new association led Alexander into the "inner sanctum" (his words) of jazz music icons, vibraharpist Milt Jackson and bassist Ray Brown. He spoke of his work with his friend, recording engineer, Todd Barken of the famous jazz club Keystone Corner (long closed), which used to be located in the North Beach section of San Francisco, and who now runs Dizzy's Coca Cola Jazz Club, at Lincoln Center in New York. Alexander is a very sociable, engaging and humorous individual, and the audience seemed to enjoy his retrospective account.

Returning to his piano, Monty Alexander showed that he is a rabid Frank Sinatra fan. Next he played "one for Sinatra." This 'one' was the Jimmy Van Heusen/Sammy Cahn hit "Come Fly With Me," that Sinatra made his own; giving a mischievous wink, and a cool musical salute to "airline stewardesses" in the   friendly skies. He played it, as Sinatra sang it: Swingin'.

Alexander often brackets his tunes with introductions and endings that are masterpieces unto themselves; like the audience, the band seems spell bound, while they are intricately unveiled, as they did on the next tune, Hoagy Carmichael's heart stopper "In the Cool, Cool, Cool, of the Evening." The room literally let out an audible gasp as he artfully, nimbly, ambled the piano keyboard from end-to-end before he brought this tune to its final climax.

The Harlem-Kingston Express was on a roll now, they cruised over into the fast lane, let fly the 1925 pop tune, turned jazz classic, "Sweet Georgia Brown," and Bobby Thomas gave a stunning display of his talent as a 'percussive linguist.' At times, the rhythm patterns of his bongo drums were fluidly conversant with Alexander's piano,  stimulating and accentuating its colors; then he would switch to congas and boldly trade pungent broadsides with Winnard Harper's drums to bring a rocking rhythm to the surface; and like second nature, he'd search out the bass of Lorin Cohen and blend with it to add more body, bounce and swing to its voice. Thomas is a show by himself. His energy, stamina and hand strength seem unlimited. He pushed both bassist Cohen and drummer Harper into committing solo performances that in the end garnered "Sweet Georgia Brown" a standing ovation.

But the best was still to come. The band took a nostalgic look back with a medley of classic Jamaican folk songs, beginning with Irving Burgie's popular "Jamaica Farewell,"  a phenomenal hit in 1956 for Harry Belafonte; this segued into "Linstead Market" (Oh lawd! wat a night! wat a night! wat a saturday night!); a song maybe not so well known in the U. S., but a folk anthem in the Caribbean; this night Monty Alexander performed it with all its original richness and idiomatic appeal to rousing appreciation from the crowd. The medley was crowned with one of Alexander's compositions, "Love Song." Midway through this beautiful song, Laurin Cohen took an extended bass solo during which he turned the melody inside out and converted it masterfully, into Jerome Kern's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." It was a virtuoso performance that took every one's breath away; including Cohen. Alexander's piano then took over, restated "Love Song," and ended it with the Scholz/Sampson soulful 60's pop hit "I Need Your Love" (Unchained Melody). This performance was greeted with the second standing ovation of the evening!

This was as good a place as any to end the show; and that is what Monty Alexander tried to do, but this crowd demanded an encore; so Alexander and the Harlem-Kingston Express returned to the stage for an encore...and what an encore it turned out to be!

Alexander introduced the encore by stating that he would play a tune that he used to hear played in churches during his childhood in Jamaica; but later discovered that it was almost an "anthem" in the United States. He took his seat at the piano; the band took their positions, and Alexander commenced to play something deliberately pious, and church like; something meant for the 'dear departed.' Although the music sounded familiar, I could not identify its title. But then he paused; and if ever there was a "pregnant pause," this was it! Suddenly all of Harlem and Kingston went into over-drive, and all "swingin', rockin'" hell broke loose! Then I recognized the tune as one I knew called "John Brown's Body." Later someone gave me the official name: It was Julia Ward Howe's 1861 American Civil War Hymn: "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." That rousing cry that goes "Glory, glory, hallelujah! was now being 'swung' and 'rocked' to the rafters like it has never been before, or ever will be again! When Alexander and the band were done scorching this "hymn," incredibly, they were given the loudest, longest ovation of the show, and their third standing ovation of the night.

This was a first for me;  jazz musicians being given a standing ovation for rocking out a hymn!

There was nothing more that the band could do to top this, even though Monty Alexander spent a few more minutes on stage entertaining the now buzzing crowd with his harmonica-keyboard. I suspect that the audience was spent; the band surely. Eventually, he just laid the small instrument aside and said "good night."

And what a 'good night' it was!