Shaken not stirred
Along with Duke Ellington the music of Thelonious Monk is among the most recorded body of jazz composition anywhere by some distance.
The chance of a true jazz lover ever tiring of the classy shaken not stirred twist of a cocktail in these hands of the straight no chaserisms of Monk are very slim indeed.
Unknown qualities
A first time outing of UK sax icon Dave O’Higgins who turned 60 last month with the largely unknown to the wider jazz world presence of Australian bassist Luke Fowler, the Greek drummer who goes under the name of Billy Pod, Canadian pianist Sean Fyfe who is on just under half of the tunes plus the much better known English trumpeter Martin Shaw on a third of the pieces.
Shaw's contributions are one of the reasons the album works so well. He has played on such records with His Royal Higness as In the Zone (Jazzizit) harmonising beautifully with HRH on the title track of that 2008 gem.
You won't be stumped
The four in the foreground in the title means 4 settings - not 4 people nor puns any other cunning formulation carefully crafted and applicable thereof. Upon my word, Blowers, odd numbers are very Monk and something of a test match special with such a triplet feel jutting against 4/4 time signatures only part of the rules. An unmistakable jauntiness, the salty chromatic note clusters practically patented by Monk are further parts of the thrill of the great pianist composer's writing.
Birth of a Monk repertory trio
The settings as O'Higgins goes to some pains to point out in briefing documents are: trio: quartet with piano; quartet with trumpet and quintet. That variety works well. If the album had been all trio tracks with no guests it would be fine but much too narrow a glare.
Epic Epistrophy
Highlights include O'Hig's soloing on 'Epistrophy' which is worth the price of the album alone; Fowler's absorbing contrapuntal work here too is first class.
Overall the release is even better than the Hammond organ and guitar soaked O’Higgins & Luft Play Monk & Trane that nevertheless did the wider world a favour beyond the Belfast jazz scene of introducing the talents of Scott Flanigan to a few more heads than otherwise would have been the case if he had just stayed gigging around on the much put upon overly neglected Northern Irish jazz scene.
The title tune 'Four in One' emerged in 1951 and found bebop pioneer Monk with alto saxist Sahib Shihab, vibist Milt Jackson, bassist Al McKibbon and drummer Art Blakey issued by Blue Note on Genius Of Modern Music, Volume Two.
Fyfe's role isn't that important apart from on the title track which proves a joyous romp.
But Shaw's role is. He adds the exuberant joie de vivre factor that he pulls off very well.
Find space on the mantlepiece
Definitely one of the best UK-led releases of 2024 if there are any proper awards going and the most enjoyable orthodox Monk themed album that we have come across since Miles Okazaki's unusual and highly illuminating solo guitar treatments heard on Work released in 2018.
Minty as a Tic Tac
Final word, O'Higgins, who has been working closely with Ross Dines on the fledgling PX releases in the last few years, is also a real records man and his organic studio set-up that contribute to the sonics here adds a lot to the bespoke nature of the effortless seeming graft and consummate craft that has gone into the crisp sonics. Mercifully at no time do you think all this great music sounding as minty as a tic tac was recorded in a swimming pool phone booth using a Huawei destined for only a nanosecond on TikTok.
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