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By the time this album was recorded in 1958, Lacy was already making his mark playing soprano saxophone exclusively and working with some of the most forward-looking musicians in jazz, like pianist Cecil Taylor and arranger Gil Evans. The group here consists of some of New York's most probing, younger players--pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Buell Neidlinger an associate from the Taylor group), and Elvin Jones, already a forceful presence on drums. The startling thing about this early venture into Monk's music, the first album by other musicians devoted to Monk, is that Lacy was already foregoing the better known tunes, concentrating on Monk repertoire that was seldom played outside the pianist's own groups. Lacy's spare, structurally conscious improvisation gets to the essence of Monk's music. --Stuart Broomer
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Steve Lacy - Reflections,
This review is from: Reflections:Steve (Audio CD)
Monk is a musician virtually impossible to copy, or even to be influenced by to any degree, without sounding like some inadequate pastiche. A disc made by musicians featuring Monk's music and sounding a little like Monk, could be an abject failure. It isn't, it's a roaring success, and Lacy, and for that matter, Mal Waldron, achieve the almost impossible task of being entirely at one with Monk's music but also being entirely their own men.
The session dates from 1958, before Lacy left for Europe, and consists of seven then little known Monk pieces played by Steve Lacy on soprano, Mal Waldron on piano, Buell Neidlinger on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. All are superb. Steve brought the soprano into modern jazz before Coltrane and plays throughout with an aggressive angular style, never turning a fairly ornery instrument into a mock oboe or a refugee from a harem. For me, the best modern soprano ever, and here on his best form. he worked hard at the music (indeed, at one time he had a band that played nothing but Monk's music), was completely familiar with it, and revelled in it. Mal plays beautifully. He plays as he normally does, with a unique mixture of spidery lines and dissonant chords but, particularly on the slower tunes such as 'Reflections' and 'Ask Me Now' sounds just like Monk but also totally Mal. Neidlinger sticks to rhythm with a big and sustaining tone. He isn't the bassist one would expect for this group, normally working with Cecil Taylor, but a consistent swinging rhythm was always necessary in Monk's groups and he supplies just that here. Elvin plays as he did a few years later on his Blue Note sessions with such as Andrew Hill and Sam Rivers, forceful and aggressive, but always encouraging the rhythmic flow of the music. The programme is well varied, with the two slower pieces, one fast tune ('Skippy'), and four at medium pace. All swing, and there isn't a weak spot on any of them. This isn't easy music, not in the sense that it is superficially unattractive, because it isn't, but because the more you dig into this, the more you find.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Your Average Monk Cover Band,
By Michael B. Richman - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Reflections:Steve (Audio CD)
Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy is one of the great interpreters of Thelonious Monk's music. In some ways it seems strange that one would want to buy an album of Monk songs that did not feature Monk. His music is some of the most distinctive in all jazz, if not all music. But Steve Lacy injects his own style into Monk while maintaining the music's original intent and unique sound. Of course, it doesn't hurt having Mal Waldron on piano, who has a playing style very reminiscent of Monk's, and two figures well known for their own advancements in jazz, Buell Neidlinger and Elvin Jones, on bass and drums respectively. The best aspect of this album though is Lacy's playing of lesser-known Monk works. While umpteen jazz musicians have recorded "'Round Midnight," Lacy concentrates instead on "Hornin' In," "Bye-Ya" and "Skippy." This is essential music for anyone who loves Monk, Lacy or good jazz.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Way ahead of it's time, but it swings, too,
By ccex - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Reflections:Steve (Audio CD)
This was the very first Thelonious Monk tribute album, recorded at least 20 years before jazz musicians found it fashionable to play Monk tributes. It also brings the soprano sax back to the forefront, after the death of Sidney Bechet, and before John Coltrane mastered it. Elvin Jones, Buell Niedlinger, and Mal Waldron make the perfect rhythm section for this project. What I admire most about this is Steve Lacy's insistence to explore some of the trickiest and more overlooked Monk compositions. I'll listen to any version of "Skippy" and "Four In One" I can find
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lacy does with a horn what Monk does with a keyboard,
By Matthew Watters - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Reflections:Steve (Audio CD)
While echoing the comments of the other two reviewers, I would also note that what makes Lacy's Monk covers great is that he uses the horn to voice much of what Monk usually conveys with his piano. Lacy is that good: his playing encompasses all the rhythmic and harmonic 'quirks' that make Monk's piano-playing so endlessly fascinating. On this recording, that puts the always-fantastic Mal Waldron not in the role of replacing Monk's piano, but of serving as an additional solo voice, much like the horns in one of Monk's quartets. (And, like the puckery sound of Charlie Rouse, the tone of Lacy's soprano sax seems perfectly suited to 'doing' Monk.) If you think I'm coming out of left field with this mini-analysis, note that Lacy dropped the piano entirely for his next, mostly Monk, recording, the even-more-superb EVIDENCE with Don Cherry.
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