Customer Reviews

Monk: Do You Be

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

DO YOU BE is a rather puzzling and frustrating CD. Apart form her other works this collection of works emphasizes more the piano than the voice. Whereas in most of her better known works Monks facile use of the voice as an instrument, in this collection the voice seems to be obbligato to the chords of piano music. The pieces here are for 10 voices, 2 pianos, synthesizer, violin & bagpipes and while they continue to fascinate and substantiate Monk's position in the avant-garde realm, they can become wearing. Rhythms are important here and take a focus not heard in Monk's other music. The performers are all first rate musicians and their virtuosity shows! A collector's item more than a CD, the owner will likely not be listening to or experiencing repeatedly. Grady Harp. May 10

I saw this lady two decades ago at the Bracknell Jazz festival; she performed alongside some other people, oddly, from the venerable Soft Machine, but this was a long time ago and I might be mistaken. I do remember that the music, as is the case here, seems to come not so much from ahead as a from long time ago; she explores, if you can imagine this, many parts of vocal expression that are in a sense unformed as song, but yet are about to take that shape at any time. I think that this is a great thing; with Berio, for instance you have the feeling that you are hearing something very primitive, yet terribly human and imminent. Many songs here are sad; conveying most accurately and yet without speech, moments of loss, transitory joy and eloquent recollection of happier days. Without language, this music reaches out and tries, if it were posssible, to touch, to console, to comfort.

Mind you, the panda chants are quite something else. For a long time, we (as a family) have had a funny kind of thing with an odd collection of toy pandas who over the years, acquired names and somewhat zany stories (some of which are very complex and leading to some publishable material). And I actually encountered this CD from the Panda Chant song, played in a reckless moment of Radio 3 by a brave presenter one dark night in 2008 as we were on our way back home; we were stopped in the car by a closed railway crossing, and the rain was pouring and then THIS came on!

I totally endorse this whole thing; this strange kind of mayhem and the wit and gentleness and sheer peculiarity that it seems to embody. I can only hope that one day I do as well as this.