Monty American

Accompanied by the excellent Bobby Thomas Jr. and Hassan W. Shakour, this concert, which was filmed in 2001 at the New Morning Concert in Paris, shows that Monty Alexander can truly live up to his name as being "The Great". In the course of an exemplary musical journey both as monster pianist and subtle composer, Monty Alexander is truly spectacular. One of his main influences was Louis Armstrong, and after travelling to New York, he performed together with Frank Sinatra at a local Bar.

Love Notes, a brand-new album of eleven tracks with vocals and piano by Monty Alexander, is set for release on August 19th, 2022. The collection represents the culmination of Monty’s decades-long desire to record a vocal album after releasing 75 piano projects over the course of his illustrious, critically-acclaimed career.

Over his long recording and performing career, Monty Alexander has displayed an ability to excel with any jazz or related genre. From swing to bop and hard bop, from reggae to mainstream jazz, you name it and Alexander has done it and done it well. On his latest and fourth album for the Telarc label, the veteran pianist takes time to show his appreciation and gratitude to his adopted home, America, through a series of songs in honor of people and images that shaped his attitude toward this country, whether it be cowboy movies he used to see as a youngster in Jamaica or the impression made upon him by a variety of American performers, including Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, and others of like diversity…

Musically, in terms of being a James Bond score, Dr. No is the weakest of the soundtrack albums in the film series, with only Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" marking out familiar territory. But as a piece of music and a pop culture artifact, Dr. No may be the most interesting album in the whole output of the James Bond series. A good portion of the most memorable music in the film, including "Kingston Calypso" (the "Three Blind Mice" theme from the opening of the film) and "Jump Up," constituted mainstream American (and European) audiences' introduction to the sounds of Byron Lee & the Dragonaires (who also appeared in the movie, performing "Jump Up"), who became one of the top Jamaican music acts in the world just a couple of years later; sharp-eyed viewers can catch a young white man dancing in that same scene, incidentally, who is none other than Chris Blackwell, the future founder of Island Records.