Customer Reviews

Intimately Live At The 501

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This is the best Live Hammond Organ Jazz record in all the History of the Jazz Organ !!!! I know what I' m telling, because I have almost all the live organ jazz CDs, from the jazz organists Will Bill Davis, Jimmy Smith, Earl Grant, Shirley Scott, Richard " Groove" Holmes, Jack McDuff, Carl Wilson, Winston Walls, Charley Earland to Joey DeFrancesco ! In comparison with the late, grate Jimmy Smith, Tony Monaco said himself : " I'll never live up to that... it's too much. Didn't they hear that I didn't quite execute that passage right! " But he was mistaken ! And if you buy and listen to this cd, you will become aware of this!!!
This cd has 9 spectacular tracks performed by Tony Monaco's Trio (Hammond B-3 Organ-bass pedals & Leslie Speaker, Guitar and drums) and recorded live the 5:01on Sunday, May 26th 2002.
YOU CAN NOTE THE PERSONAL, ORIGINAL AND UNIQUE PLAYNG STYLE OF TONY, ESPECIALLY LISTENING TO THE EXTRAORDINARY RENDERING OF THE TRACKS " MELLOW MOOD " (THAT IS SUBLIME) AND "THE CAT".

I like the Hammond B-3 organ timbre tonality used by Tony Monaco in this record and I hope that in the future Tony will use the same organ timbre!!! With this timbre you will note and listen to the effects of the Leslie's whelling round speakers, and that is a DIVINE SOUND never listened by the other jazz organists!!!!!

If you listened to the Jimmy Smith's trio live record at Harlem ( NYC) at the Small's Paradise club on November 15, 1957, with Eddie McFadden at the guitar, you'll recognize 2 tracks played by Tony Monaco :"I' Can't Give You anything but Love" and It's Only a Paper Moon".
After 44 years of Organ Jazz History, we can tell that the Tony Monaco's skill at the Jazz Organ fully stands up to comparison with Jimmy Smith!!!!
Personally I prefer Tony Monaco's playng style, that is sole and unique. I PREFER TONY MONACO TO JIMMY SMITH AND TO ANYONE ELSE JAZZ ORGANIST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At the Tony Monaco's website you can listen to 2 other tracks never released from this live session: 1) Best things in life are free; 2) Clockwise; these 2 track are as excellent as this cd!!! Also you can find the DVD "Killer B3 - A tribute to the Jimmy Smith " with a Live Tony Monaco Trio.
IF YOU DON'T HAVE THIS CD, I TAKE THE LIBERTY TO TELL YOU THAT YOU HAVE NOTHING ABOUT THE LIVE ORGAN JAZZ!!!!!!!! "

Look out for this organist - Tony Monaco is definitely a Hammond B3 burner with serious soul- and blues organ chops and great technique, to take into account. Monaco have studied with all the organ daddies - Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, so he keeps the soul organ tradition very much alive. But does he sound too much like his organ mentors with less Monaco identity? After listening to this good 2002 trio live album - "Intimately Live at the 501" - for hours, I'm not sure where he's heading with the tunes he has chosen for this album since I have heard them by other organ masters. Monaco has balls when he jumpstarts this album with the Jimmy Smith trademark "The Cat", which swings like the late master with great support from drummer Louis Tsamous and guitarist Robert Kraut. Unfortunately he continues with Jimmy Smithy trademarks like "I'll Close My Eyes" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" which is well played but only becomes average copies of the master takes. When Monaco turns into new territories with "Takin' My Time", "Take The Coltrane" and "Footprints", he changes dramatically. Now we hear a much more daring and inventing trio with great interplay who stretches out when Monaco uses the sounds dynamics and registrations of the Hammond B-3 organ...this is serious stuff!!

On this album Monaco pays (too much) tribute to Jimmy Smith (like Joey DeFrancesco on some albums), and this limits his creativity and freedom trying to match the old master, so my advice is - stay away from the the organ daddy trademark tunes and explore new territories. "Intimately Live at the 501" is an interesting live album from The Monaco Trio with superb recording quality.

I got a tipoff about this recording just tonight from a fellow Grado equipment fan and fan of the B3 organ, on a hi-fi music site run by Stereophile magazine. I've been a fan of Jimmy Smith since the 60's, but I haven't looked around for anything comparable in the meantime, being busy with many things. I should never be so busy as to miss a recording like this. I've played this music now on several different systems, and it sounds great on all of them. I suppose it's due to the excellent miking and the quality that's evident in every aspect of the recording. The organ sounds absolutely real and "right there", and the other instruments and percussion blend so well it's almost like they've been playing together their entire lives. The playing is flawless, which is amazing given it's a live performance, and you can ascertain that clearly from the ambient sounds and the occasional spoken words. I wish all of the live recordings I have could sound this good.

As far as the material goes my jazz collection is very small, consisting of maybe 200 MP3's, most of those converted from lossless tracks that I also have as backups. So I'm not familiar with the compositions here except for The Cat, and Sweet Georgia Brown obviously, which is played at a fast pace. If you're not a big jazz fan or not familiar with this style of playing, there are a number of videos on Youtube that run full length where you can get a much better idea of what's going on than with the typical 30-second audio clips you can sample before buying a CD.

Some of this music carries over from the bebop era and is (to my ears) harder to follow than most of the so-called straight ahead jazz I usually prefer. I only mention that as a caveat for people unfamiliar with this music, since I love the entire album myself. In any case there's a good mixture here, and tunes like Takin' My Time are bound to be a favorite with nearly everyone, since it's slower and easier for people who aren't already fans to follow, but most importantly, well played and just beautiful.

Awesome players, just as advertised. I live locally and I'm very sorry I didn't get to be there that night!!!
I don't know much about the technical aspects of music reviewing but this disc is vibrant and emotionally charged in my opinion. I had never heard of the guitarist before this recording but found him to be very fluid on this set and look forward to hearing his own recordings.
Tony and company are a precious commodity here in Columbus and are probably under appreciated!

Steve Ealy

The title of this release should actually be "Intimately Live at the 5:01," because the venue was the 5:01 Jazz Bar in Columbus, Ohio. Just imagine Brent Musburger saying, "You're looking LIVE at the 5:01 Jazz Bar in Columbus, Ohio, where in just a few minutes Master Chops T himself, Mr. Tony Monaco, will be firing up his Hammond B-3 organ along with his bandmates Robert Kraut on guitar and Louis Tsamous on drums. Folks, you're in for a treat, because the Tony Monaco Trio burns, and I'm not talking about setting a few parked cars on fire like they do here in Columbus after a big Buckeye victory over Michigan, I'm talking about some really hot music from this dynamic organ trio!"

I was really tickled to see that Robert Kraut play guitar on this CD, for I took a couple of graduate philosophy courses from him at The Ohio State University back when he was a young, skinny professor with no gray hair, an amazing bundle of intellectual enthusiasm on a quest for truth and beauty. He is still on the faculty, and his part-time status as a professional musician makes it even more remarkable that he plays as well as he does. All three members of the trio sound as though they are having a ball making this live recording. The sound is reminiscent of Jimmy Smith, to whom Monaco tips his hat in the liner notes, and the trio works through standard organ-trio fare such as "It's Only a Paper Moon" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" with chops and soul to spare.

They save the best for last however; the CD closes not with standard organ-trio fare but with a rendition of Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" that simply glows for more than ten minutes. This is good, good stuff, and if you love that B-3/guitar/drums sound, you really ought to give this CD a listen. On a good system at a healthy volume level, you will soon be listening LIVE at the 5:01 Jazz Bar in Columbus, Ohio...

I strongly recommend this CD to all who appreciate the B3 as the most emotive of jazz instruments. Tony is a magician, bringing forth all that the B3 has to offer. His support is right there and Tony gives them room to shine. All in all, one of the best organ trio sessions I have heard in years. Great job guys!
PS
Come to upstate NY for a gig. You will receive a lot of support.