Pianist Simon Nabatov plays the music of Thelonious Monk in a live concert from 1995, alternating those recordings with a 2013 concert of solo electroacoustic work, an unusual approach that focuses the melodic aspects of Monk while highlighting his eccentricity and intrepidity.
Label: Leo Catalog ID: LEO 780 Squidco Product Code: 23314
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2016 Country: UK Packaging: Jewel Case Recorded at the LOFT, in Cologne, Germany, in 1995 and 2013 by Christian Heck.
"As Stuart Broomer writes in his notes, the new Nabatov's recording consists of two solo recordings made 18 years apart, the first a selection of Thelonious Monk compositions from 1995, the second a concert from 2013 in which Nabatov first employed electronic technology in performance to create a pitch-bending, - expanding and - fracturing double of the piano. The result is a recording that explores time in multiple ways, whether looking at decades or cycles per second, treating the experience of chronological time as both malleable substance and a special kind of consciousness."-Leo
"Originally from the Soviet Union, pianist Simon Nabatov has built a very successful career, with many interesting projects as a solo pianist, collaborator and educator. This album consists of two solo recordings made eighteen years apart, the first a selection of Thelonious Monk compositions from 1995, the second a concert from 2013 in which Nabatov first employed electronic instruments in performance to create a doppelganger of the piano. There is an interesting dichotomy with the pieces from different instruments and time periods interspersed within one another. Nabatov has a natural and rich approach to the piano, beginning with an infectious version of Monk's "Skippy" that dances and sways, easing the listener into the pianists conception of music. There are four untitled tracks called "Electroacoustic Extension" which are his experiments into electronics. These can vary from using the electronics to develop a clipped rhythm, to selections that offer the sounds of a player piano in outer space. Nabatov isn't afraid to experiment, and if those selections start to intimidate the listener, he is quick to add further Monk interpretations, whether the more obscure "Oska T" to the familiar compositions "Epistrophy" and "Pannonica" where he draws on the melodic strength of the source material to create very appealing improvisations of his own. Monk warped space and time with his unique musical interpretations, and Nabatov does the same on his electronic experiments, bending and warping the fabric of the music and looking for new ways to approach sound. Moving back and forth with each approach can be startling, but it jars the listener out of complacency forcing them the take stock of Nabatov's approaches to both the familiar and the challenging sides of music."-Tim Niland, Jazz and Blues Blogspot