Judith Lang Zaimont by David ReffkinReview by: Rick AndersonNotes, Second Series, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Dec., 2007), p. 355Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30163121 .

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Sound Recording Reviews 355

lovely birdsong passages and is also a high- light of the program.

Judith Lang Zaimont. Prestidigitations: Contemporary concert rags. American Ragtime Ensemble / David Reffkin. MSR Classics MS1238, 2007.

Pianist and composer Judith Lang Zaimont's particular take on the ragtime tradition is both respectful and refreshingly modern. This very fine collection of her compositions includes chamber works, solo piano pieces, and music for larger ensem- ble and finds her in a variety of moods: restless and sharp on the "Bubble-up Rag" (for flute and piano), meditative on the "Reflective Rag" (a piece that manages somehow to combine the trademark synco- pations of ragtime with a broad rubato, and that is presented in three different ver- sions), and effervescent on "Judy's Rag." Not everything here is a rag, strictly speak- ing: "Lazy Beguine" is exactly what its title suggests, a full-ensemble beguine with a sweet and melancholy melody; the tune is carried first by a clarinet, then by a cello, then by a sort of wind concertino, and everything is moved forward by a stately stutter-step snare drum. The composition that evokes the past most strongly is the "Hesitation Rag," a lovely piece that, for all of its rhythmic freedom, is filled with phrases and gestures that reference the work of Scott Joplin quite explicitly. The most exciting and immediately accessi- ble work on this program is the "Snazzy Sonata: An Entertainment for Two," a multi-movement piece for piano four hands; each of its four movements is based on a different jazz idiom, with one each for the two-step, the beguine, and bebop, and ending with a "Grand Valse Brillante." Very highly recommended to all libraries.

Monk's Music Trio. Monk on Mondays. CMB CB 102843, 2007.

Compared to his comrades in the bebop insurgency of the 1940s, Thelonious Monk was not a particularly prolific composer: his entire output can be easily accommodated on three CDs. But his unorthodox (some would say rudimentary) piano technique and his deeply quirky sense of harmony, combined with a talent for creating strange

but indelible melodies, have ensured him a

respected place in jazz history. The Monk's Music Trio (pianist Si Perkoff, bassist Sam Bevan, and drummer Chuck Bernstein) is only one of several jazz ensembles whose work focuses partially or completely on the Monk repertory; the trio's Monday night sets are a regular feature at the Simple Pleasures Cafe in San Francisco. On this recording they present arrangements of thirteen Monk compositions, ranging nicely from such predictable classics as "Ruby My Dear," "Well You Needn't," and "Straight No Chaser" to less frequently recorded fare like "Brake's Sake," "Green Chimneys," and the notoriously difficult "Criss Cross"-a piece whose rhythmic dis- locations sound almost like a parody of boppish complexity. When most Monk in- terpreters fall down, it is because they mis- take the composer's eccentricity and diffi- culty with dour seriousness, and approach his music accordingly. The Monk's Music Trio makes no such mistake, and brings a sense of vitality, joy, and fun to these com- positions that opens them up and lets them breathe. The result is a wonderfully refresh- ing take on music that, in less capable hands, might have sounded stale and worn-out. Very highly recommended.

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. Kidney Stew Is Fine. Delmark DD 631, 2007.

Originally issued on LP in 1969 on the French Black & Blue label and since reis- sued numerous times, this album is signifi- cant in a number of ways. For one thing, it is an excellent document of one of the great blues shouters at the peak of his pow- ers. No slouch as an alto saxophonist, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson's greatest asset was nevertheless his powerful, chesty voice, and he employs it beautifully on these ten songs. For another, it is the only available recording to feature Vinson working with legendary pianist Jay McShann and the equally brilliant guitarist T-Bone Walker. But its real import lies in the simple plea- sures it brings. Vinson, who died in 1988, was equally comfortable working in the rau- cous jump-blues tradition of Wynonie Harris and Louis Jordan and in the more deliberate blues styles of B. B. King (whose vocal influence can be heard strongly on "Wee Baby Blues" and "Just a Dream") and

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