Graeme Wilson (tenor saxophone) & Paul Edis
(piano)
(Review by Russell/Photo
courtesy of Mike Tilley from a previous gig.)
The Jazz Café’s newly tuned piano awaited a night of
Monk. The brethren congregated around the altar to hear some nutty crepusculian
sounds courtesy of Thelonious Sphere.
The altar, dedicated to Bacchus, praise be, received
the many supplicants, an evening’s cloistered contemplation in the presence of
monks Wilson and Edis was upon us.
Graeme Wilson and Paul Edis were about to reprise
their set of Thelonious Monk tunes first heard at the Jazz Café earlier in the
year. The faithful occupied front row pews, the bacchanalian agnostics lashed
themselves to the altar, they were ‘on the lash’. Monk in NYC played to the
non-believers, Wilson and Edis were about to do the same. If Monk was looking
down on the scene he would be smiling, shuffling to the rhythms (rhythms he
gave to the world). Bright Mississippi, on the chords of Sweet Georgia Brown, began the sermon. The duo took Crepuscule with Nellie, then A Merrier Christmas and we, the
brethren, received with thanks the offering. Stuffy Turkey (seasonally topical), a Trinkle Tinkle treat, a nutty Nutty, then off on a San Francisco Holiday (Worry Later said
Monk) – this was something else! Masters at work, Graeme Wilson’s tenor full-toned,
warm, an education for the aspiring, Edis in scintillating form, Monk’s
wonderfully skewed logic, left hand stride, rooted in the rootie tootie of the
blues.
The non-believers didn’t get it. They moved on. The
disciples stayed on. Hornin’ In, the
pensive Monk’s Mood, Four in One, the off-centre Off Minor, one after another, this put
the gig up there with the best heard this year on Pink Lane. That was about it.
Wilson and Edis have to do this again – TS Monk would insist upon it. Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues Are – if you have
to ask, it don’t mean a thing. Just imagine, if the non-believers were able to
hum a Monk tune as they made their way to the next two-bit boozer they might
just turn a Brilliant Corner!
Russell.
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