by John Murph, Downbeat Saxophonist Teodross Avery’s latest disc, Harlem Stories: The Music Of Thelonious Monk (WJ3), is both a homecoming and tribute. Monk’s music entered Avery’s life in the 1980s, when he was a teenager. While growing up in California’s Bay Area, he was already checking out jazz through either his father’s album collection or through … Read More
Derrick Gardner – ‘Still I Rise’ 78 Derrick Gardner takes a grand leadership role on Still I Rise leading his Big dig! Band, arranging, producing and composing all of the music. The North American band has many musicians from Manitoba where Gardner resides, and they all stand tall. The layered brass on “Push Come To Shove” is … Read More
By Paul Abella, WDCB Saxophonist Teodross Avery plays Thelonious Monk’s music with two grooving, straight-ahead jazz trios, and the results are exactly what you’d expect on Harlem Stories. Most of the arrangements stick pretty close to how Monk played them (which is a great thing, right?), but “Ruby, My Dear” and “In Walked Bud” get … Read More
Textura As a Berklee College of Music freshman, eighteen-year-old Teodross Avery joined its Thelonious Monk Ensemble, which might help explain why, nearly thirty years later, the saxophonist sounds so comfortable inhabiting the man’s music on Harlem Stories. Read the full review here.
By George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly It’s fitting that Teodross Avery should do a tribute to Bop Icon Thelonious Monk, as his rich and thick tone is reminiscent of perennial Monk sideman Charlie Rouse. He delivers Spherical tunes with two different teams, with Band 1 consisting of Anthony Wonsey/p, Corcoran Holt/b, Willie Jones III/dr ang … Read More
By Brenda Nelson-Strauss Most jazz aficionados are aware that in the 1940s Monk was the house pianist at Minton’s Playhouse, a club located in the center of Harlem. One of Avery’s goals for the album was “to make sure that we brought the feeling and the spirit of Harlem into the music. Read the full … Read More
DownBeat Magazine The November 2020 Issue of DownBeat magazine includes reviews of Miki Yamanaka’s Human Dust Suite, Teodross Avery’s Harlem Stories: The Music Of Thelonious Monk, Geof Bradfield’s General Semantics, Derrick Gardner & The Big dig! Band’s Still I Rise, John Minnock’s Herring Cove, and a feature story on Lakecia Benjamin. Read the issue out now.
By Peter Vacher, London Jazz News Read the full CD review here.
By Morton Shlabotnik, Shepherd Express One of the most enduring compositions from late ‘40s bebop, the haunting melody of “Round Midnight,” was written by Thelonious Monk. Perhaps Teodress Avery was wise not to include “Round Midnight” in his tribute to Monk. Instead, the tenor and soprano saxophonist choses 10 other Monk numbers. Read the full … Read More
By Stephen Graham, Marlbank Here’s Teodross Avery playing the swinger ‘Teo’ from Harlem Stories: The Music of Thelonious Monk just out on Willie Jones III’s WJ3 Records. Read the full review here.
