ERR36: George Dumitriu: Monk on Viola

TRACK LISTING

1 Evidence 4:04
2 Round Midnight 8:15
3 Locomotive 3:15
4 Boo Boo’s Birthday 4:35
5 Four In One 4:34
6 Humph 6:11
7 Ask Me Now 4:39
8 Trinkle Tinkle 4:29
9 Crepiscule With Nellie 4:15

total playing time: 44:31

Recorded by Philip ten Brink, June 18 & 19, 2022 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Mixed by George Dumitriu, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Mastered by Gert van Hoof, Cochlea Studio, Berlaar, Belgium
All compositions by Thelonious Monk, © Thelonious Music Corp., Second Floor Music
Supported by Sena Muziekproductiefonds
Special thanks to Anya, Frank, Ivana, Pau, Kristijan, Henning, Meinrad, Gert and Philip

LINER NOTES
Monk’s music having come into being in past moments of history is highly personal - a case of a special relationship of rhythm and melody. PLAYING it NOW is a question of personal absorption and re-creating it from the view of the other. That very search and imaginational moment can articulate and manifest itself more or less in the process of re-creation whereby the music appears defamiliarized in certain degrees. From this dialectics a new phenotype emerges showing the imprints of the genotype in a new bedding/context. It is here brought into unusual being by the viola-playing of multi-instrumentalist George Dumitriu. His viola playing and Monk’s music have steadily grown towards each other over a longer period to finally manifest itself matured on this solo-album. 

It was, in Dumitriu’s words, quite an experience: “Monk’s music is so strong and so well made that even when making it very abstract, the essence is still there. Like a lifebuoy that keeps floating. There are many deep layers of details in Monk’s language and music. The more into details I went, the more everything made sense altogether. There is a perfect architectural balance in each of his pieces and they are all very well crafted into detail. Also each of the pieces seems to have one key motive which is like a motto or secret code of the tune - usually sounding very hip, having a specific interval or voicing. Most of the times the melody is enough to guide through the solo part if I’d think in a jazz way. More important than the chords. And this is also what Monk was asking his band members to follow.”

In the nine chosen Monk-pieces Dumitriu uses bowing noises, multi-phonics, flowing transitions, percussive effects. Thereby he passes through micro-tonalities producing overlays, multi-instrumental/orchestral effects and polyrhythms. The de-familiarization turns out productive  and enlightening after short initial disorientation. Time and time again, it's captivating how the Monk-gestalt emerges, configures and shines out. Wonderment increases while Dumitriu draws the listener more and more into this kind of virtuosic and playful finding and showing, arriving at the apt locus, which then appears ‘of its own accord’. 

Henning Bolte, August 2022, Amsterdam