The Good Life: The Music of Tony Bennett Monty Alexander

• 1 That Old Devil Moon 05:32
• 2 The Good Life 05:07
• 3 Smile 07:09
• 4 Maybe September 06:10
• 5 The Way You Look Tonight 06:40
• 6 Just a Little Street 03:38
• 7 Just In Time 04:19
• 8 Emily 03:06
• 9 Put On a Happy Face 06:05
• 10 I Wanna Be Around 04:39
• 11 Once Upon a Time 03:17
• 12 Because Of You 02:27
• Total Runtime 58:09

Info zu The Good Life: The Music of Tony Bennett

The Good Life is the beautiful result of Monty Alexander's original take on classic pieces from Tony Bennett's extensive catalog. It's Monty's infectious, rhythmic style containing a formidable technique that serves him unerringly without drawing undue attention away from the joyous, soulful, reverent and songful improvisations that spring from head and heart-informed fingers.

"Monty Alexander has always been a fine jazz pianist, but in recent years he has received more popular acclaim for interpreting the reggae music of his native Jamaica. While his reggae efforts are well done, straight-ahead jazz and interpreting standards are really his forte. For The Good Life, Alexander has chosen to riff on tunes from the repertoire of Tony Bennett -- not the most popular or well-known, or even written by the singer -- but a good cross section of his set list over the decades. The Chicago-based rhythm team of veteran drummer George Fludas and up-and-coming bassist Lorin Cohen (cousin and bandmate of pianist Ryan Cohan) gives Alexander all the supple support and equal dynamism his playing demands. It's safe to say that listeners will enjoy the more refined, easy swinging numbers such as "Smile," the light bossa treatment of "Maybe September," and the tender ballad "Emily." This is what the elegant Alexander does best, playing 'round midnight affirmations, romantic advances, and subtle harmonies. But as the CD hums along, the pianist becomes more assertive -- the kind of animation Alexander is always capable of but rarely shows -- as on "Just in Time," where he trades phrases with Fludas, displays energy, and digs in. The trio does "Put on a Happy Face" in a loping, crafted manner, seasoned by the years, and presents a doleful blues on "I Wanna Be Around," which is the tune most identified with Bennett. A little Latin spice bumps up the traipsing "That Old Devil Moon," and a horse-trot rhythm courtesy of Fludas inspires "The Good Life." As in the tradition of Chesky Records, this session was recorded with a single 360-degree microphone, done at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in N.Y.C., and the sound is pristine. Turn up the volume a few notches to hear the precious, full, rich, bountiful sound Alexander and his group are putting down." (Michael G. Nastos, AMG)

Monty Alexander, piano
Lorin Cohen, bass
George Fludas, drums

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 96 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 192 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Monty Alexander
Jazz pianist Monty Alexander makes a point of telling his audiences that he was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1944, and that he immigrated to the United States in 1961. Alexander has never neglected his Carribean roots and has created many fruitful mashups of jazz with calypso, reggae, mento, and other island music. His two albums of the music of Bob Marley, Stir It Up (1999) and Concrete Jungle (2006) are particular triumphs, as was his 2011 Harlem – Kingston Express Live! which qualified him as virtually the only jazz pianist to be nominated for a Grammy for Best Reggae album.

At 74, he tours the world relentlessly with various projects, delighting a global audience drawn to his vibrant personality and soulful message. His spirited conception, documented on more than 70 CDs, draws upon the timeless verities: endless melody-making, effervescent grooves, sophisticated voicings, a romantic spirit, and a consistent predisposition, as Alexander says, “to build up the heat and kick up a storm.” In the course of any given performance, Alexander applies those aesthetics to repertoire spanning a broad range of jazz and Jamaican musical expression—the American songbook and the blues, gospel, and bebop, calypso and reggae. Like his “eternal inspiration,” Erroll Garner, Alexander—cited as the fifth greatest jazz pianist ever in The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time (Hal Leonard Publishing) and mentioned in Robert Doerschuk’s 88: The Giants of Jazz Piano—gives the hardcore-jazz-obsessed much to dig into while also communicating the message to the squarest “civilian.”

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet