JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING

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When I got Bobby Broom’s new CD Plays For Monk in the mail, I was intrigued. As far as I know, he’s the only guitarist that’s done a date almost entirely made up of Monk compositions. And Broom was doing the date as a trio!

On the face of it, that’s pretty daring, considering how much of the flavor of Monk has to do with extended and “wrong” harmony, and displaced rhythmic accents, which are usually taken care of by a chordal instrument.

I wasn’t familiar with Bobby Broom before I heard Plays For Monk, and I soon found out why. Broom is Sonny Rollins’ regular guitarist, and I don’t listen that much to Rollins. Why? Because Rollins is straight up bebop and has been since he started, and straight up bebop usually doesn’t interest me that much. (This, of course, tells you more about my taste or lack of it in music than it does about Broom’s merits as a guitarist.)

So, I was dying to know, what approach was Broom going to take to cover Monk?

Back in 1999, Dave Liebman did a date with nothing but Monk tunes, also as a trio. He got the flavor of Monk by taking some Monk transcriptions and arranging them for bass, so that took care of much of the harmony and rhythmic displacement. As a soloist, saxophonist Liebman was careful to base his improvisations on compositional elements like melody and rhythm rather than just play over the changes. He was always fairly aggressive in including out elements and “wrong” note choices. I considered Liebman’s approach ideal.

Many people approach Monk’s music like they’re reading off of a Real Book and never actually heard Monk play. These guys just run bebop changes that have little or nothing to do with Monk’s concept. That was even true of many of Monk’s horn players when he was still active. That approach never ceases to irritate me.

Bobby Broom does something in between these two extremes. Often, as on Evidence, Broom will include a lot of the harmony in the head by playing the melody using chords. Sometimes, as on Ask Me Now, drummer Kobie Watkins will include elements of rhythmic displacement. Still other times, bassist Dennis Carroll will solo while Broom includes gentle alterations of the harmony in his comping.

All of this is exceedingly subtle. You don’t really get a full-blown Monk feel. I associate listening to Monk with excitement. On the other hand, the music on Plays For Monk is extremely mellow. Bobby Broom has adapted Monk’s compositions to the sound of his trio, rather than the other way around. Still, he has done so with knowledge and respect. He’s not just having his band play over the changes.

But what about the playing itself? Broom’s comps and leads are the soul of taste. He doesn’t play a lot of notes. He’s careful about what he wants to say and he strives for melodicism. He’s not really trying to find new things in these compositions. He’s not trying to push the envelope. He’s just trying to play pretty, with some swing and a little R&B feel.

Broom’s drummer, Kobie Watkins, and bass player, Dennis Carroll, are on the same page as their leader. There’s no grandstanding here. These guys are the perfect rhythm section for Broom, sensitive to the effect the leader is aiming for at all times.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that technically speaking, there’s not a lot to criticize in these performances. The engineering by Josh Richter is especially fine. You can hear the nuances of all three instruments and the sound levels are mixed perfectly.

I also appreciate that Bobby Broom has refrained from picking the same ten Monk tunes everyone else does, instead opting for such underplayed gems as Evidence and Work. He even includes a performance of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. While that may not be a Monk tune per se, it had it’s brightest flowering under Monk’s fingers.

So far, this review is reading like a rave. So why haven’t I given Plays For Monk five stars? Well, I have to be honest enough to admit that I am the one reviewing this CD, not some hypothetical objective reviewer. The musicianship on Plays For Monk is less aggressive and exploratory than I prefer. Plays For Monk is too polite for me.

That said, I have to acknowledge that given what Bobby Broom was aiming for musically, Plays For Monk would be hard to improve on. If you like bebop, appreciate a smooth, R&B inflected jazz style, and dig Monk, you’ll love Plays For Monk.

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