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Miles Okazaki just announced on Facebook this album, recorded in secret and released today on his Bandcamp page.
70 Monk compositions, recorded for solo guitar. Available in six individual albums at $6 each, or the complete set for $28.
In recent months, Okazaki had been sharing minute-long video clips on his Instagram account of his practising a bunch of Monk tunes, so it's great to get to hear full performances.
From Facebook:SURPRISE ALBUM:
I've been working on this for a year, putting myself back in school by going through all of the compositions of Thelonious Monk. These are the tunes that got me started on this path 30 years ago, and I'm trying to pay them proper respect here by digging deep into the details. It's a solo recording, one guitar, one amp, no effects, 70 tunes, six albums, six bucks each. You can also get the whole thing as one giant album for a discount. It's download only (too long for a physical product), available at this link:
Work (Complete, Volumes 1-6) | Miles Okazaki
The record comes with PDF liner notes, but they are also online here:
milesokazaki.com/albums/work-2018/
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08-15-2018 08:48 AM
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Excellent! Can’t wait to listen.
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What an incredible accomplishment - solo guitar arrangements of 70 Thelonious Monk compositions!
I've listened to some of the arrangements and from what I've heard so far I think Miles Okazaki is an outstanding jazz guitarist who has put together some very cool and creative arrangements.
What a treat - thank you for letting us know about this collection!
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Thank you David for bringing this to our attention!
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Wonderful!
Thanks, Miles!!
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Has anyone else listened to this nonstop today? This is such a good album.
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Just purchased the album. That was well earned by Miles!!!
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Thanks for bringing this release to our attention David. Have been listening for the last hour plus. Feels like the first time I discovered “Virtuoso”.
Very cool.
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Holy shit!!! I think I have a new guitar idol.
I love this bold modern approach. Delightful! I especially appreciate the unapologetic solo plectrum guitar playing, as opposed to trying to mimic 10 finger piano playing.
It's a beautiful match between player and repertoire.
Thanks for pointing out this thing. I'm inspired to work on Mr Monk again. (I learned Well You Needn't about 50 years ago off the disc, which got worn out by the trying and obviously never came anywhere close to what this is)
I think there's a recurrent thread here something like "What can I hope to gain by learning a song a week". I'd say this is a humbling demonstration and an awe-inspiring tour de force.
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The project is picking up some very positive press:
Miles Plays Monk, Steve Turre Gets Mellow and John Escreet Finds an Opening, in Take Five | WBGO
Aretha’s Operatic Triumph: The Week in Classical Music - The New York Times
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Nice playing but I wish these were played polyphonically. 70 tracks of unaccompanied solo guitar played with just a plectrum is extremely boring.
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Thsnks, David B. Miles is a cool cat. I wish they were available as full fat non-compressed CDs.
Here's hoping.
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Well everything I've ever purchased from Bandcamp has the FLAC files which are lossless (many offerings even provide the .wav files in full entirety) but if you burn CD's of the FLAC's you'd have the same difference - I'm sure the much lower delivery cost helps keep these as affordable as they are.
Don't get me wrong I still like physical product too, but unlike iTunes and other wanker streaming avenues Bandcamp does it very legit.
RF
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He doesn't play strictly monophonically. Also, where he does, I think he sets it up as a challenge. I personally find monophonic solo performance enthralling. If it's boring, it's because the information content in his melodies is so dense.
Originally Posted by armando
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You're entitled to your opinion. My opinion is that it's the most exciting solo guitar playing I've heard in a long time. Much of it had me grinning ear to ear, and in some instances laughing with delight. Originally Posted by armando
You can, and Miles does play polyphony with a pick. Granted, it's not Pasqually Grasso polyphony. As I said earlier, the plectrum playing is exactly what I find interesting and refreshing about this. It's a bit like listening to solo classical strings, which I also do not find boring.
I should point out that a few of the tracks are in fact played in a more traditional finger flesh style.
You won't find me listening to 70 tracks in a row of any one thing. I came pretty close with this though...
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This is so cool! What a feat!
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I plan to purchase and spend some time with this over the coming weekend. I can understand those that find it challenging listening - I think that is fair give the massiveness of the 70 song collection...that much of anything in one sitting it "much".
But I think Miles O. being brave enough to take on this challenge and offer as a complete collection well deserves my support - a brave artist he is.
RF
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If you check out the liner notes (link in first post), Okazaki has, in setting the track listing, broken the set down into six volumes, getting through you the set in six comfortable listening sessions. Each volumes contains several fairly concise performances, one extended exploration of a piece and closes with a blues.
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That's a great reminder David, thank you! I went to get the entire collection as I think its just an awesome feat for him to do this! And a good value of course. But I think burning 6 CD's for consumption in the car, etc. makes sense from a listening perspective and again shows how well thought out Miles did this w/the various versions/offerings. Thx for sharing the info and kudos to Miles! RF
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Just checking back after listening to it while drafting around 4hrs a day for the last 5 days. I guess that means I've heard all of the tunes at least 3 times? The one that cracks me up is Straight No. What a nut! (so, you know... obviously... I think Nutty's pretty good too.)
There's something I've been wondering about this thread. Here we have one of the finer bop guitarists of our day playing tunes by a giant of the genre. He's playing this stuff on a 175 with CC pickup thru a fender twin with no effects. Isn't this like... a holy grail sound? Where are all the tone connoisseurs that hang at amps and gizmos? Are they really that busy clipping bright caps and swapping 12Awhatevers with 12Asomethingelses?
Let me say this is all in good fun. Up until a year ago I was hard on the tone quest myself. Also, while I find his sound to be perfect for the material, it's not quite what I like to hear when I plug in. I guess I like a little more air, or something.
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I didn't think from a tonequest perspective, but I absolutely love his sound here. It's minimal and effortless. The sound is pretty dry, sounds a bit thin at times, maybe faint. There's a bit of fragility to it. He really put himself out there with this record. It really does sound like a solo performance at a house concert or something.
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I know this techno age we live in can be baffling....but its certainly not all bad.
In the last few minutes I've ordered this collection via .Flac and .Wav from band camp for a (very) reasonable price and also for fun Matt Chamberlain's latest from Loop Loft...
To have 6 CD's of Miles O. doing Monk and Matt "Biscuit" Loops to jam with....wow. :-) Almost makes all the media digital noise worth sifting thru, thank you to the artists!
I'll still say hugely brave of Miles O. for going for it with this, he seems one not backing from the challenge and that seems worth supporting. I feel the same of his music book which is still whistling at me near the music stand....time...need more time! ;*)
Be well..
RF
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Some very astute and sensitive observations there Omph. Thanks for sharing them. It's interesting to me that words like 'dry, thin, faint, and fragile' are being used to describe elements of a sound we love! Is this a bit of humanity coming through?
One of the things I really admire him for is the unmasking of the raw sound of his electric guitar. That's the 'modern' approach I spoke of before. Like "here it is. this is it. warts and all". Almost brutal!
So I don't want to make this about me, but in the mid 80's I did a lot of work with a modern classical composer who was writing for electric guitar. Solo and otherwise. One of my faves was a guitar and trombone duet. I played a solid body Rickenbacker into an old Mesa 100 watt set totally clean. It was kinda... harsh. But it was what he liked to hear, and so I guess it was right for that material. And challenging stuff. My warts and pimples were always fully on display.
Maybe that's why it feels modern to me even though he's playing vintage gear.
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As much as I love 50s and 60s jazz guitar sounds, I think Miles sound here is basically that stripped of all kitsch. His flatwounds go plunk to the point of sounding dead at times, completely unlike the glamorous “thunk” people go on about when talking about vintage tone. You’re dead on - this recording sounds totally natural. Peter Bernstein’s solos record also has this characteristic. He has a pretty heavy attack, and sometimes you really hear the clang of his strings, but the outcome isn’t bad: it’s just a much more complex timbre than we’re used to. I think it opens up a whole world of dynamics in composition and performance that a lot of electric guitarists can sometimes overlook.
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is flac better than mps/
9will the site allow for downloads of both flac and mp3??)
if so will a cd player read the flac as opposed to the mp3
don't want to Dl something my system will not read//
difference??
thanks,
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