Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
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Wow, that's both cool and, to me, very interesting. To veer TOTALLY OT, I always viewed Oscar and Monk as at opposite extremes of jazz pianists and always sort of wondered what they'd have thought of each other. Glad to know Oscar liked and respected Monk as much as he clearly did from this video. But its a little disconcerting to hear him play Monk's work because he's SOOOO smooth, so facile, such an incredible virtuoso, whereas Monk was a far more limited player, kind of a jazz primitive, who's style is sort of defined by his technical limitations yet thoroughly transcends them. Monk was sort of funk before there was funk. Peterson was the absolute antithesis of funk - sort of a predecessor of smooth jazz, but with actual substance. Sort of like comparing Neil Young and Jeff Beck as guitarists. Beck could play rings around Neil, but Neil developed such an amazing distinctive and musical style all his own, limitations and all. Anyway, I love both of them but they couldn't be less similar and its cool to hear Oscar play some Monk. Round Midnight was not typical of Monk, though - it became a standard while most of his stuff was a bit farther off the beaten track... I'd like to have heard Oscar take a shot at Bemsha Swing or some of his other funkier stuff:
OK, sorry for the OT, but it's not that far off. Just makes the point that there's a TON of latitude in terms of what works and doesn't even within a particular genre and rules were meant to be broken...
-Ray