Monk's Music Trio - Monk on Mondays (2005)

Ever since August 1999, the trio of pianist Si Perkoff, bassist Sam Bevan and drummer Chuck Bernstein has been performing the music of Thelonious Monk for two or three Monday nights a month at San Francisco's Simple Pleasures Café. On this CD, they interpret 13 Monk pieces including such difficult works as "Brake's Sake," "Hornin' In" and "Criss Cross." Si Perkoff often sounds very close to Monk although in most of his solos he also shows a bit of his own musical personality. Sam Bevan is a more fluent soloist than most of Monk's bassists and Bernstein, the group's leader, has his own approach to drumming that is quite complementary to the music. The group does not bring in any radical reappraisals to Thelonious Monk's songs so one would advise listeners to acquire the original Monk recordings first, but Monk on Mondays is an easy set to enjoy for those who want to hear newer versions of this classic material.