Pianist Monty Alexander says that the music he heard growing up in Kingston, Jamaica, had tastes and smells strong enough to inspire him today.
Over six decades, his soulful, spunky sound led to appointments with Frank Sinatra, Milt Jackson and Ray Brown — and a prominent role on Natalie Cole’s Grammy-winning celebration of her father, Nat. With a brand-new project, Wareika Hill (MACD Records), Monty has taken the music of Thelonious Monk, showing island similarities and developing “Rastamonk Vibrations” along the way.
Alexander’s Monktime Band stopped into Morning Jazz to play a taste of what’s in store at the Blue Note through Sunday night.
