Short Life of Barbara Monk

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Short Life of Barbara Monk
Short Life of Barbara Monk.jpg
Studio album by Ran Blake
Released 1986
Recorded August 26, 1986
Genre Jazz
Length41:33
Label Soul Note
Producer Giovanni Bonandrini
Ran Blake chronology
Painted Rhythms: The Compleat Ran Blake Volume II
(1985)		Short Life of Barbara Monk
(1986)		 A Memory of Vienna
(1988)

Short Life of Barbara Monk is an album by the American jazz pianist Ran Blake featuring saxophonist Ricky Ford recorded in 1986 and released on the Italian Soul Note label. [1] The album's dedicatee (1953–84) died from cancer and was the daughter of the jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. [2]

Ran Blake American musician

Ran Blake is an American pianist, composer, and educator. He is known for his unique style that combines blues, gospel, classical, and film noir influences into an innovative and dark jazz sound. His career spans over 40 recording credits on jazz albums along with more than 40 years of teaching jazz at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he started the Department of Third Stream with Gunther Schuller.

Ricky Ford American jazz tenor saxophonist

Ricky Ford is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.

Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.

Contents

Reception

The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this album as part of its suggested Core Collection. [3]

<i>The Penguin Guide to Jazz</i> book

The Penguin Guide to Jazz is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which are currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by Richard Cook and Brian Morton, two well known chroniclers of jazz resident in the United Kingdom.

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 3 stars stating "Tenor saxophonist Ricky Ford works surprisingly well with Blake, whose phrasing and use of space are unusual, while his interpretations are sometimes based on the feeling he gets from song titles rather than the chord changes... Another intriguing Ran Blake set". [4]

Scott Yanow is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author.

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Penguin Guide to Jazz Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [3]
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]

Track listing

All compositions by Ran Blake except where noted.

  1. "I've Got You Under My Skin" (Cole Porter) - 3:37
  2. "Una Matica de Ruda" [Take 1] (Traditional) - 0:54
  3. "Artistry in Rhythm" (Stan Kenton) - 5:54
  4. "Una Matica de Ruda" [Take 2] (Traditional) - 0:58
  5. "In Between" (Claire Ritter) - 4:06
  6. "Short Life of Barbara Monk" - 7:24
  7. "Impresario of Death" - 3:45
  8. "23 Degrees North, 82 Degrees West" (Dee Barton) - 2:44
  9. "Dark" (Mauricio Villavecchia) - 4:49
  10. "Vradiazi" (Mikis Theodorakis) - 2:51
  11. "Pourquoi, Laurent?" - 4:31

Personnel

Piano musical instrument

The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings.

Tenor saxophone type of saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B♭ (while the Alto is pitched in the key of E♭), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists".

Double bass Acoustic stringed instrument of the violin family

The double bass, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra.

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References

  1. ↑ Soul Note discography accessed July 14, 2011
  2. ↑ "The Short Life of Barbara Monk". Ran Blake. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  3. 1 2 Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2008) [1992]. "Ran Blake". The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (9th ed.). New York: Penguin. p. 140. ISBN   978-0-14-103401-0.
  4. 1 2 Yanow, S. Allmusic Review accessed July 14, 2011
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