{"id":777,"date":"2012-01-24T12:22:52","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T17:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=777"},"modified":"2019-09-12T20:39:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T00:39:30","slug":"organ-monk-weds-funk-thelonious-soul-and-smarts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/01\/organ-monk-weds-funk-thelonious-soul-and-smarts.html","title":{"rendered":"“Organ Monk” weds funk & Thelonious, soul and smarts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organist Greg Lewis<\/a>, wearing a monk’s robe, plus guitarist Ron Jackson and drummer Damion Reid, \"Jeremy<\/a>tore up with full\u00c2\u00a0respect the knotty compositions of the\u00c2\u00a0late great Thelonious Monk<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0last night at 55 Bar in Greenwich Village. About a dozen people heard them over a 90 minute period (they played a full set, took a break and performed one more extended tune before turning the stage over to guitarist Mike Stern) but it was one of the most enjoyable sets I’ve caught for months.<\/p>\n

Playing a\u00c2\u00a0Hammond C-3<\/a>, which he explained was a B-3 restored and put into a (somewhat) more easily transportable cabinet, Lewis demonstrated complete mastery of Monk’s penetratingly insightful, somehow intuitive melodies and startlingly flexible rhythmic structures. While the music of Monk has become iconic for jazz modernists as Bach’s is for classicists of the Western European tradition, generating tribute albums from talents as disparate as\u00c2\u00a0Wynton Marsalis<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Hal Willner<\/a>, Lewis’s interpretations capitalize on the reedy sustain of his instrument to highlight the “ugly beauty” (Monk’s term) in the songs’ often close-interval riffs and “wrong is right” (another Monkism) chords.
\n<\/object><\/p>\n

Lewis improvised excitingly, opening up “Little Rootie Tootie,” “Evidence” and “Think of One” among other tunes with dazzling fast finger runs and emphatic clusters, sometimes quoting other Monk songs in the midst of the one his trio was addressing. Jackson’s<\/a> thick, clear tone and flowing solos admirably matched \u00c2\u00a0Lewis’s interpretations and Reid, a last-minute sub for the trio’s usual drummers, was also fully aware of the repertoire’s quirks, adding his own intense energy. Mentioning he’s recently performed and\/or recorded with saxophonists Steve Lehman, Steve Coleman and Rudresh Mahanthappa and trumpeter Nicholas Payton, Reid<\/a> is in demand and his playing showed why.<\/p>\n

Lewis’s album Organ Monk<\/a> <\/em>made my 2010 best of the year list, and I’m still listening to it (he’s recorded a followup, which awaits final mixing and release). A native New Yorker whose father David Lewis was a jazz pianist, Lewis plays Harlem venues including Showman’s Lounge and the Lennox Lounge where pretensions gain no traction but expressive soulfulness is prized. He claims organist Larry Young as his main instrumental influence; Young (1940-1978) was arguably the last organist to reframe his instrument’s potential<\/a> (on both his own albums <\/a>and with Tony Williams’ Lifetime<\/a>). Lewis takes the advanced keyboard technique and free-thinking Young espoused (and others including Joe Zawinul, Don Pullen, Andrew Hill and John Medeski have each in their own ways have demonstrated) to compositions which boast distinct integrity, retaining the bluesy drive and church-redolent atmospherics of the first generation jazz organists (post-Waller and Basie, Wild Bill Davis and Milt Buckner leading to Jimmy Smith). And Lewis with Jackson and Reid (on the Organ Monk<\/em> record, Cindy Blackman drums) are impassioned. All of which added up to breakthrough music, enriching and fun, jazz and beyond jazz.<\/p>\n

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Organist Greg Lewis, wearing a monk’s robe, plus guitarist Ron Jackson and drummer Damion Reid, tore up with full\u00c2\u00a0respect the knotty compositions of the\u00c2\u00a0late great Thelonious Monk\u00c2\u00a0last night at 55 Bar in Greenwich Village. About a dozen people heard them over a 90 minute period (they played a full set, took a break and performed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/greg-lewis1.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-cx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2247,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2017\/06\/nea-supports-jazz-and-us-arts-nationwide.html","url_meta":{"origin":777,"position":0},"title":"NEA supports jazz and US arts nationwide","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"June 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Endowment of the Arts, arguably the most misunderstood and beleaguered doing-good office of the federal gov't (excluding the NEH, EPA, Consumer Financial Bureau, Civil Rights Division of the Justice Dept., and a few others) has issued its 2017 funding report, highlighting that its monies (monies from we US\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Anthony Braxton\"","block_context":{"text":"Anthony Braxton","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/tag\/anthony-braxton"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/mule-ride-epicenter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/mule-ride-epicenter.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/mule-ride-epicenter.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":141,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/11\/classic_monk_classical_jazz_at.html","url_meta":{"origin":777,"position":1},"title":"Classic Monk, classical Jazz at Lincoln Center","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"November 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The jazziest scene at the second night of Jazz at Lincoln Center's Monk Festival was in the fifth floor atrium, during intermission of simultaneous concerts by pianist Danilo Perez's trio (reprising his cd Panamonk, in the Allen Room) and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra performing members' arrangements of Monk's music\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":314,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/04\/jazz_lofts_aint_what_they_used.html","url_meta":{"origin":777,"position":2},"title":"Jazz lofts as they used to be","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Composer\u00c2\u00a0Steve Reich said, \"Without John Coltrane, there would be no minimalism.\" The topic was Hall Overton, the man who arranged Monk's music, treating jazz as contemporary \"classical\" composition. The occasion was a panel discussion sprung from an exhibit at the NY Public Library of the Performing Arts about the Jazz\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"monk overton.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/monk%20overton.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1295,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2013\/04\/jazzapril-begins-no-joke.html","url_meta":{"origin":777,"position":3},"title":"JazzApril begins (no joke!)","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"April is Jazz Appreciation Month (so named by the Smithsonian Institution), culminating on the 30th with\u00c2\u00a0International Jazz Day (a project of UNESCO, organized by the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz) -- and both those initiatives are endorsed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. 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He is an authentic icon of the American alternative, the possibility of us each becoming, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":513,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/08\/virtual-charlie-parker-jazz-fest-online-video.html","url_meta":{"origin":777,"position":5},"title":"Virtual Charlie Parker jazz fest (online video)","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Fearing Hurricane Irene, New York City has suspended public transportation and cancelled everything -- but not my\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0online video Charlie Parker Jazz fest, a humble audio\/video standin for the live sets scheduled but not-to-be in Harlem and the East Village, Saturday and Sunday, Aug 27-28. 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