Sonny Rollins: Disco Monk
Sonny Rollins (tenor sax, overdubbed piano and tenor sax)
Don't Ask (Original Jazz Classics 9152)
Jerome Harris (electric bass).
Composed by Sonny Rollins.
Recorded: Berkeley, CA, May 15, 1979
Rating: 69/100 (learn more)
Sonny Rollins has always delighted in the mundane as a means of challenging himself. Lurking behind his penchant for unlikely sources is a trenchant wit that recalls pioneering political cartoonist Thomas Nast. As decisively as Nast lampooned bloated grafters of American politics, Rollins skewers lame ducks of American popular music, simultaneously ridiculing and rising triumphantly above his sources. One is left to wonder, though, as Sonny discos the night away, why a great artist would ruminate on such dross. Satire goes a long way, but enough already, TheodoreŚwe get the point. As for Monk, this silly track's only connection to Thelonious is its title.
Reviewer: Alan Kurtz
Tags: monk tributes