Ben Goldberg / Todd Sickafoose / Scott Amendola: Here to There

There was a very good reason that James Brown would shout "take me to the bridge." In an interview, he explained: "I heard someone use that expression maybe 45 years ago, referring to the middle part of a song, and I changed it to mean a release." Clarinetist Ben Goldberg, bassist Todd Sickafoose and drummer Scott Amendola utilize that same release with an exploration of the bridges from Thelonious Monk's compositions.

Goldberg and Amendola have explored Monk's music in the past, releasing the beautiful Plays Monk (Long Song Records, 2007) along with bassist Devin Hoff. With Here And There, Sickafoose joins and contributes four compositions written solely on the limiting constraints of bridges from Monk's catalog. He wrote "In Walked" for "In Walked Bud," Monk's dedication to pianist Bud Powell, "Self Evident" for "Evidence," "Sad Trophy" for "Epistrophy" and "Interospection," for "Introspection."

The trio's constraints are their liberation. The bridge of each song frees the players, or as James Brown said "releases" their improvisational abilities. Goldberg's clarinet prowls around "In Walked" over insistent bass, scattering Monk fragments with Amendola's pulse incorporating some muggy, weathered electronics. The trio elongates "Self Evident" as if examining each grain and granule of its corpus. "Interospection" opens with a solo clarinet reshaped with electronics and compelled to follow the march of Sickafoose's bass.

Besides the bridgework, Amendola contributes three variations of "Lions Heart," and Goldberg likewise adds three "Porch Concert Material" compositions. Each additional track keeps with the mode and manner of this session. I guess you could say the bridge is the jumping-off point for Goldberg, Sickafoose, and Amendola.

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