Monty Alexander post cancer and stroke

[rintincop]

Jazz pianist Monty Alexander was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2010. On the first day that he went for chemotherapy, he had a stroke that affected his left side. He couldn't target notes with his left hand. He would reach for a C and hit an A. Then he lost his temper, thinking his career was over, punched a wall, and broke bones in his right hand. But he recovered from all of it and is back and still swinging hard as he demonstrates in a 2016 tribute to Frank Sinatra. Go Monty! The woman sitting behind him in a black dress is his wife Cat.

[wintermoon]

My goodness, was just watching him host jazz month on TCM where he was talking about playing @ Jilly Rizzo's when he came to NY, Sinatra and the Rat Packs main watering hole where he made many connections including Duke.
he looked and sounded great, not sure how long ago it was recorded. best wishes Monty!

[morroben]

One of my favorites! He's been doing cool youtube stuff during quarantine.

[starjasmine]

I love MA's playing. Heard "Night Mist Blues" from "Montreaux Alexander" on KCSM the other day. I love the interesting sub at bar 5 and it is so cool to hear all the inventive things he does with a nice laid-back blues.

Although it was the nice sub for V that originally caught my ear, a closer listen reveals that this is an eight-bar form instead of 12 bar:

||: I | | IV | | biii bVI| ii V| iii VI | ii V :||

Sorry for the crappy text-based notation. I can't seem to figure out how to get this blog to respect whitespace, so it's a bit crowded looking.

This tune is well worth a listen! And thanks for the Riddim vids - I'll check them out! I love all the cool stuff that you guys post to JGF!

[MarkRhodes]

A favorite from Monty with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown, "Captain Bill."

[joelf]

Wow! 1st I've heard.

Caught him in '86---with the great John Collins, guitar (recorded it).

Funny story: Back at Barry Harris's Jazz Cultural Theater, mid-'80s, Johnny O' Neal had a gig. Played so much piano that Barry and Monty, standing in the back, shook their heads.

'What are we gonna do with him?'

'Tie him up?'...

[rintincop]

The essence of Monty Alexander's energy:

[JazzVocab]

I've been listening to the Monty and Ernest Ranglin duet album recently, really great performances