Play Monk and Powell is an album by Paul Motian

Paul Motian

Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...

 and the Electric Bebop Band released on the German Winter & Winter

Winter & Winter

Winter & Winter is a Munich-based record label that specializes in jazz and improvised music. Stefan Winter, also the founder of the now-defunct JMT Records, is the founder and executive producer of Winter & Winter...

 label in 1999 and featuring performances of tunes by Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...

 and Bud Powell

Bud Powell

Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...

. The album is the group's fourth release following the 1992 album Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band

Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band

Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band is an album of bebop jazz standards by Paul Motian originally released on the German JMT label. Recorded in 1992, it was released in 1993 and features performances by Motian with Joshua Redman, Brad Schoeppach, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Stomu Takeishi...

, the 1995 album Reincarnation of a Love Bird and the 1996 release Flight of the Blue Jay

Flight of the Blue Jay

Flight of the Blue Jay is an album by Paul Motian released on the German Winter & Winter label in 1997 and featuring performances of bebop jazz standards by Motian with the Electric Bebop Band...

.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Steve Loewy awarded the album 4½ stars stating "The arrangements are entirely respectful of the compositions, although liberties are taken with tempo and harmony. The results are more than satisfactory, if somewhat conservative, with the solos passed about generously. Motian again reveals his ability to kick and burn, as well as play sensitively, reaffirming his place among the greatest jazz drummers".

Track listing

1. "We See" (Thelonious Monk) - 4:53
2. "I'll Keep Loving You" (Bud Powell) - 5:43
3. "Brilliant Corners" (Monk) - 7:50
4. "Rootie Tootie" (Monk) - 4:48
5. "Blue Pearl" (Powell) - 4:19
6. "Boo Boo's Birthday" (Monk) - 4:17
7. "Wail" (Powell) - 5:04
8. "San Francisco Holiday" (Monk) - 6:23
9. "Parisian Thoroughfare" (Powell) - 3:13
   • Recorded at Avatar Studios in New York City on November 28 & 29, 1998

Personnel

• Paul Motian
  Paul Motian
  Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Chris Potter
  Chris Potter (jazz saxophonist)
  Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...
  
   - alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Chris Cheek
  Chris Cheek
  Chris Cheek is an American jazz saxophonist. He has worked as a sideman on more than sixty albums in his career, and has been bandleader of four critically acclaimed solo albums.-Biography:Cheek was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri...
  
   - tenor saxophone
  Tenor 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, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
  
• Steve Cardenas
  Steve Cardenas (musician)
  Steve Cardenas is an American musician.While beginning his musical career in Kansas City, Steve has been an integral part of the jazz community in New York for fourteen years....
  
   - electric guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• Kurt Rosenwinkel
  Kurt Rosenwinkel
  Kurt Rosenwinkel is an American jazz guitarist and keyboardist who came to prominence in the 1990s.-Biography:He attended the Berklee School of Music for two and a half years before leaving in his junior year to tour with Gary Burton, the dean of the school at the time...
  
   - electric guitar
• Steve Swallow
  Steve Swallow
  Steve Swallow is a jazz double bass and bass guitarist and composer born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.One of the leading bassists in jazz, Swallow is noted for collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton and Carla Bley...
  
   - electric bass
  Electric Bass
  Electric bass can mean:*Electric upright bass, the electric version of a double bass*Electric bass guitar*Bass synthesizer*Big Mouth Billy Bass, a battery-powered singing fish...