Sunday, March 13, 2022

Tony Monaco Celebrates 50 Years of Music

Edwin Bayard, Kevin Turner, Tony Monaco, and Willie B Barthel III on the cover of Monaco’s new album (from the Amazon.com Web page for the recording being discussed)

This coming Friday Chicken Coup Records, a division of Summit Records, will release Tony Monaco’s twelfth recording. Monaco plays a Hammond B3 organ; and, on this album, entitled Four Brothers, he leads a quartet whose other members are saxophonist Edwin Bayard (on both tenor and soprano), Willie B Barthel III on drums, and Kevin Turner on guitar. As expected, Amazon.com is currently processing pre-orders for this new release.

The album marks Monaco’s celebration of “50 years in the business.” This has an ironic ring to it. 50 years ago I was just beginning my career as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science. I assumed that I would “rise through the ranks,” eventually receiving a tenured position at a college or university located somewhere that would satisfy my unquenchable thirst for the performing arts. That fantasy stuck with me during my Assistant Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania, located near a railroad station from which it was easy to catch a train to Pennsylvania Station in the middle of Manhattan, allowing me to devote my “spending money” to subscriptions and single tickets.

Over the course of 50 years, Monaco seems to have developed into the jazzman he aspired to be. My own trajectory was quite different, pursuing alternatives to academia and exploring opportunities beyond the boundaries of the United States of America. Now, here I am, having put all of those ventures behind me, examining Monaco’s 50 years of progress!

Ironically, I knew nothing about him until one of his promoters sent me the Four Brothers album. Left to my own devices, I probably would not have added this album to my collection; but, as Monaco’s “old-timer” contemporary, I have to confess that I really like it when a new recording of straight-ahead jazz comes my way. There is a a bit of the Latin on the album, primarily in the fourth track presenting “Mas Que Nada” (more than nothing) by Jorge Ben Jor. However, three of the nine tracks are Monaco originals, joined by Turner’s “One For Everyone;” and all of four of those tracks feel very comfortable in the company of the track of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life.”

In contrast to my many peregrinations, Monaco recorded Four Brothers in Columbus, Ohio, his hometown. As readers may guess, my own hometown of Philadelphia did not hold as much significance. However, Columbus was where Monaco studied organ with Don Patterson, described in Monaco’s liner notes as “not yet fully recognized among this city’s many great Hammond B3 players through the years.” I sympathize with Monaco. Those that have followed my writing over the years know that I used to post regular articles on how GRAMMY nominations and awards never seemed to latch on to composers and performers that really deserved recognition. As a former colleague at the University of Colorado in Boulder kept reminding me: eventually your arm grows tried in wielding the sword of good intentions!

Four Brothers may have emerged from Monaco’s good intentions towards Patterson, but this new album stand very well on its own without support from any intentions. More important is that the upbeat rhetoric does an excellent job in countering the still-prevailing pandemic blues. Those that give the album a listen are almost sure to come away with a fresh set of upbeat thoughts.

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