Jazz Fest 2017, Day 8: Ron reviews 4 By Monk By 4, Tessa Souter, and Ariel Pocock

At Kilbourn Hall Friday night, 4
By Monk By 4 was something akin to a Thelonious Monk symphony, or at
the very least, a Monk piano sonata. Because the great jazz composer’s tunes
have a lot in common with each other — notably off-kilter timing and dissonant
melodic twists — an hour of nothing but Monk tunes was wonderfully cohesive.

Over 16 years and countless concerts at the Jazz Festival,
it’s a safe bet that no jazz composer has been played as much as Monk. That’s
as it should be; of all the genre’s great composers, Monk stands alone as the
most original and prolific.

The four featured performers Friday night took the
stage in various configurations, from solo to duos, culminating in all four on
the stage swapping piano benches at the two Steinways in a kind of Monk relay
race.

Each of the four pianists brought a different interpretive
style to the stage. Cyrus Chestnut, the first to appear, was the most
physical and in that way the most like Monk himself. Chestnut always seemed to
be reaching over the entire keyboard to find the right series of notes. At
times his right hand seemed to be scurrying down the keys chasing his left hand
only to be thrown back to catch a chord at the other end.

George
Cables was the most ornamental. Every tune he played was decorated by
an ornate filigree of notes. Benny Green was the opposite, more spare
in his playing than the others. And Kenny Barron played Monk with a
decisive touch and the assurance and expertise of the veteran player that he
is. “Ask Me Now,” “Bye-Ya,” “Green Chimneys,” “Ruby,
My Dear” — the brilliant tunes, played brilliantly, just kept flowing from the
stage.

Benny Green plays Saturday,
5:45 p.m. and 7:45 p.m., in Hatch Hall. $30 or a Club Pass. bennygreenmusic.com.

At Xerox Auditorium, Tessa Souter was
winning over the crowd with her excellent band. For most of her set, she took
jazz classics, highly familiar in their instrumental versions, and sang them
with lyrics she (or occasionally someone else) wrote. Her words to tunes like
John Coltrane’s “Equinox” and Freddie Hubbard’s “Little Sunflower” fit like a
glove. And she didn’t restrict herself to jazz composers. One of the best songs
of the night was a collaboration between Souter and Chopin.

“I wrote these lyrics,” she said. “He doesn’t mind.” He
shouldn’t; her words to his Prelude in E minor, re-titled “Beyond the Blue,”
are a perfect fit. And I’m sure he would be proud to have written a tune that
sounds like an absolute classic jazz standard. And speaking of unlikely
standards, Souter’s rendition of Cream’s “White Room” recast it as a medieval
English traditional song.

Souter’s band was exceptional, with the great guitarist Yotam Silberstein, the most melodic bassist I’ve heard
at the festival, Yasushi Nakamura, and the superb drummer, Billy Drummond.

Souter plays
again Saturday, 6:45 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., at Christ Church. $30 or a Club
Pass. tessasouter.com.

Ariel Pocock had a
nicely textured voice with attitude at Hatch Hall. If that sounds unusual it’s
because Hatch is usually reserved for solo piano, with mics only used for
announcing tunes. Pocock played a few instrumentals,
but she mostly sang and played well-chosen tunes like Randy Newman’s “Living Without You” and Hoagy
Carmichael’s “I Get Along Without You Very Well.”

You can find Ariel Pocock’s music at arielpocock.com.

Saturday night, I’ll begin with guitarist Matthew
Stevens at the Wilder Room. Then I’ll hear pianist Benny Green at Hatch
Hall. I’ll close out the festival with saxophonist Donny McCaslin
at Xerox Auditorium.

This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 4, 2017.