Customer Reviews

Carmen Sings Monk: First Edt (Dig)

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Carmen McRae's voice is fine. One of my favorite jazz vocalists, she is best known, however, for her witty and frequently ironic interpretations of lyrics, and her unique phrasing. Thelonious Monk, a brilliant pianist and composer, was one of the top jazz improvisers of the 1950's and 60's. Monk and McRae were good friends, and that's a good thing, especially because their friendship led to the making of this album. The combination of his music and her vocals are just dynamite. Pure magic!

Ms McRae sings thirteen of Monk's outstanding compositions on this CD. Two bonus numbers are versions of "Get It Straight," ("Straight No Chaser"), and "Suddenly," ("In Walked Bud"), from live performances. George Mraz's intro and solo on the opener, "Get It Straight," are superb. The other live track is my all time favorite, "Dear Ruby." What a song! And then there's the profound blues of "'Round Midnight" - outrageously outstanding!!! At times quirky, at others relaxed and swinging cool, Carmen captures Monks spirit and his angular melodies beautifully.

Most lyrics are by Jon Hendricks, with Abbey Lincoln, ("Blue Monk"), Bernie Hanighen, Sally Swisher and Mike Ferro contributing their writing talents to the other pieces. Titles have been changed, i.e., "Rhythm-a-ning" becomes "Listen to Monk," "Monk's Dream" becomes "Man, That Was A Dream," because, according to the music publishers, the pure instrumental versions have become part of a separate "Monk literature." Carmen is assisted here by tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan, pianist Eric Gunnison, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Al Foster. Tenor sax Charlie Rouse and pianist Larry Willis provide back-up on the live tracks only. I only wish there had been more live sound.

Carmen McRae movingly states, in the linear notes accompanying the CD, how proud she is of this album and the musicians involved. I thank Ms. McRae for making this wonderful compilation, at age 68, no less! It is one of the best CDs I own. It's must have. ENJOY!
JANA

Like many jazz fans, I love Carmen McRae's singing, but have stayed away from her albums because of the cheesiness factor. Her voice has so much soul and bite, but it gets lost amidst the swelling strings and [unsuitable] material. I've always wanted to hear her backed by real jazz musicians playing hip tunes, and I couldn't ask for a better songwriter for her than Thelonious Monk. I'm a longtime Monk devotee, and I've often found myself wishing that singers would venture deeper into his songbook than Round Midnight. Bringing together an underutilized vocal talent with an underexplored body of tunes was a terrific idea. I'd never heard any vocalist do Monk's Dream, I Mean You, Ruby My Dear, Pannonica, Ask Me Now or Ugly Beauty - these tunes have been crying out for vocal interpretation, and you couldn't ask for a better interpreter than Carmen.

The new lyrics are strong for the most part, especially Jon Hendricks' typically witty and inventive turns of phrase. My favorite rhyme of his comes in Ask Me Now: "What dumb thing did I say, so busy being blase." But even if the lyrics weren't so strong overall, it would still be thrilling to hear these tunes sung the way Carmen sings them. Throughout the album, she navigates the tricky harmonies effortlessly, throwing in her own thoughtful melodic embellishments. She's very free with the rhythm, too, often laying way behind the beat (her Blue Monk is like molasses dripping off a hot biscuit), and her phrasing is full of her characteristic playful intelligence. Actually, the way she dissects the tunes reminds me of the way Monk himself used to approach standards.

Of course, Carmen can own these tunes because for most of the album she has the advantage of exploring new territory. But she has something to add even to the hackneyed Round Midnight. Much as I love this tune, I thought I would never need to hear another version of it, but Carmen's take is utterly compelling. She goes through the original Monk arrangement with the usual lyrics, but also sings additional lyrics set to the melody and interludes as done by Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. I don't know whether she was the first person to sing it this way, but whoever did it first, it makes perfect musical sense.

I have a few small criticisms. I would have liked to hear more of the tunes that people don't usually sing, like Criss Cross, Off Minor, Thelonious, Brilliant Corners. Carmen's idiosyncratic edginess suits the material better than the capable but somewhat generic-sounding sideman. These contemporary cats need to remember that less is more, especially when you're playing Monk, and instead of displays of virtuosity it's sometimes better to just stick to melodic ideas. I like Charlie Rouse generally, but he played better solos on the original Monk albums. Still, I'm nitpicking. This CD has been in heavy rotation since I bought it, and it's been a major inspiration for my own jazz performing. You'll probably find yourself walking around singing these tunes to yourself incessantly after a few listens, puzzling over all the key changes in Pannonica, etc. Definitely worth buying and doing lots of close listening to.

By the way, Carmen fans who want to hear something cool should check out the album Verve Remixed, which includes a radical techno revamping of her famous version of How Long Has This Been Going On. Carmen would have been a natural club diva.

I am an avid Monk fan, and this is one of my favorite jazz albums, and my favorite vocal jazz album. Carmen McRae's does a fantastic job of interpreting Monk on these 1988 recordings. She sings very Monkish, in a style that can only be appreciated by people who love Monk's music. Both McRae's singing and the lyrics-by several different writers-fit the tunes. And the backup band is terrific! It is the best playing of Monk tunes by a non-Monk group that I have ever heard-very Monkish.

This recording will help you learn Monk's tunes. Monk biographer Leslie Gourse ["Straight, No Chaser"-recommended] remarked that many Monk fans have trouble attaching names to his tunes, even though they recognize the tunes as Monk's when they hear them. Listening to McRae's singing has helped me to remember Monk's tunes so I can whistle or "sing" them, and it has also enabled me to attach names to these 15 tunes when I hear the instrumental versions. (The song titles have been changed for the vocal versions. For example, "Suddenly" is really "In Walked Bud.") If you are a Monk fan, you will be thrilled to discover this album.

Avid Monk fans: Also check out "Soesja Citroen Sings Thelonious Monk."

This is one of the greatest vocal jazz albums ever made, and here's why:

Thelonious Monk wrote difficult, jagged, dissonant tunes. Beautiful and interesting, yes; but not the kind of songs that anyone can sing note-perfect in the shower. It would take an extraordinary singer even to try to do a set of songs set to tunes like "Well You Needn't", "Ruby My Dear", "Blue Monk", "Ask Me Now" and the like.

Along came Carmen McRae, at age 68; and with all of the wisdom and wit that a true old pro like that can muster, she knocked off these tunes as if they are the easiest songs in the world to sing. And because of her professionalism, she drove her sidemen to new heights. The tenor sax here, for example, is the old Monk sideman, Charlie Rouse; he never sounded better than here.

Many of these lyrics are by the James Joyce of Jive, Jon Hendricks. Mr. Hendricks has done some of these songs with these lyrics himself, such as "trinkle Trinkle" and on the Monk album "Underground", "In Walked Bud." Here, Carmen makes "In Walked Bud" (first take, the live one)the highlight of the album. Carmen is able to spit out all the words to the melody as if telling an in-joke that only the hipsters among us can understand. Carmen is just the coolest.

I love jazz singers who push themselves on difficult projects to do something unique. This is just such a project, and an essential for any fan of vocal jazz. RC

Musical projects based on singing lyrics to jazz standards are not to my taste at first. Just because they usually do not add a relevant bit of motivation or even a single degree of artistry to the instrumental version. However, here you are served by a sophisticated melodist and extraordinary jazz composer, and by lyricists particularly inspired. But that's not enough! Then the Master of the Masters enters the scene. No mistake, no misleading, pure emotion, pure technique. Pure Carmen! That's all. Listen to it over and over and over again until your ears get pregnant of the wonderful music that flows from standards like "Round Midnight", "Well you Needn't", "Blue Monk", and "In Walked Bud", this great tribute to Bud Powell which harmony is based on Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" and which lyrics are crazily crafted by jazz-lyric-genius Jon Hendricks. Final recommendation: background music is by a great rhythm section (piano-bass-drums) plus sax. Pure fire!

I've always regarded Carmen as belonging to that select group of 4-5 singers who might credibly be claimed as the best female vocalists of all time. All the same, the recordings of the 1970s can be inconsistent if not disappointing (mostly due to poor repertory decisions she, like so many artists, made during this period) as can her recordings of the 1980s (the smoking habit is increasingly reflected in limited breath reserves, clipped phrasing and tones devoid of all vibrato). But there are exceptions (e.g. "Any Old Time" and her Sarah Vaughn tribute, "Dedicated to You"--her last project and a daunting one that's overall quite successful, with Shirley Horn's piano accompaniment deserving much credit).

At or near the head of the class of her late recordings is this penultimate one, "Carmen Sings Monk." The pianist-composer's unorthodox, elliptical melodic intervals and rhythmic surprises are no problem for a complete musician like Carmen and even play to her then strengths, which were not long, sustained, "pretty" tones. At the same time, she's able to "sweeten" some of the tones on a piece like "Ruby, My Dear" with a nicely warmed-over vibrato, sung moreover in a higher register than she preferred during this time.

A huge bonus on this session is the presence of two of the most distinctive tenor saxophone voices of them all: Charlie Rouse (Monk's favorite horn player, more identified with him than Coltrane, Rollins, Griffin, or any of the others), and Clifford Jordan (compliment Carmen on her good taste in going to this remarkable, underrated musician who was responsible for "Glass Bead Games," one of the indispensable treasures in recorded jazz. Carmen's actual singing on each selection is limited time-wise, but thanks to her there's plenty of engaging action elsewhere.

Credit Jon Hendricks for some great, suitable lyrics, none of them degenerating to mere filler or scat talk.

Anyone as crazy about Monk as I am will love this album. Carmen McRae, the seasoned jazz singer, has the chops and the prestige to go out on a limb for these vocal arrangements of Thelonius Monk's best compositions. Backed by a quartet with outstanding tenor work by Clifford Jordan, she let's them share equally in the creation and improvization. Normally Monk's pieces wouldn't be thought of as compatible with a vocalist, so much dissonance and strange melodies. A number of people wrote the lyrics, notably Jon Hendricks, and some are outstanding, especially "Well you Needn't"(It's Over Now). She also does a wonderfully long version of "Round Midnight" which introduced me to extended lyrics.

Beautiful!
Very rarely have I heard so distinctive interpretations of Monk's music by other artists. McRae gives her inimitable imprint on the material, at the same time preserving the akward uniqueness that is Monk.
Since her versions of these songs contain lyrics and are slightly less jagged and jumpy than the originals, this beautiful CD may also serve as a very useful introduction to Monk's genius.

Quite simply, it doesn't get any better than this! The incomparable Carmen McRae vocalizing these legendary songs accompanied by some of the finest jazz musicians around. Flawlessly recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco in 1988, you will instantly believe that you are there.

I own a lot of jazz recordings. This one is among the very best. You may be a fan of the 3 piece combo, the big band, the horn with the combo, innovative instrumentation, solo recordings.

You will not care when you hear this. It will be one of your favorites too.

A fitting tribute to Monk, to Jon Hendricks, and to the memory of Carmen McRae.

I've had this record for going on 25 years, and I never tire of it.