Description

2003 concert by Duck Baker and clarinet master Ben Goldberg

MP3 Download

Format: MP3 Audio

Released: 2020

Fulica Records FCD

• Also available as Audio CD

We are happy to announce the release of this duo concert by Duck Baker and clarinet master Ben Goldberg. It was recorded at a house concert in Berkeley, California in 2003, with the two musicians teaming up for a program devoted to Thelonious Monk tunes and arrangements (nine tunes are Monk originals, and two are standards that bear his unmistakable stamp).

Duck has recorded solo versions of all but three of these tunes on his own records (especially Duck Baker Plays Monk), but these duo versions are something else. The two musicians relate to the tunes and to each other in all kinds of imaginative ways, surprising themselves and their audience time after time.

Play Monk In Berkeley was recorded on a minidisc player, so while there’s no tape hiss and very little background noise, the slightly edgy quality that’s typical of this recording method is discernible, and a occasionally a bit of distortion. To give listeners a fair sense of this we have isolated a section from the opening track (Monk’s arrangement of “It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”) where these problems are noticeable. Most of the the record sounds better than this, but even with less than perfect sound, we think the music will appeal to fans of Ben Goldberg, Duck Baker, Thelonious Monk, and wide-open, modern jazz.

More info and track listing