For those unaware, Randy Weinstein is a veteran musician who has mastered both the chromatic and diatonic harmonicas, performing jazz, blues and other styles of music in his career.

When the COVID epidemic hit, Weinstein used his free time to become expert at recording techniques, and to dedicate himself to recording Thelonious Monk compositions, but in his own way.

For HarmoniMonk, Weinstein performs fresh and memorable renditions of seven of Monk’s pieces, creating inventive arrangements that cast a new light on the vintage works.

1. Bright Mississippi (5:31)
2. Bye-Ya (4:41)
3. Green Chimneys (5:53)
4. In Walked Bud (4:05)
5. Off Minor (5:30)
6. Ruby My Dear (6:26)
7. Straight No Chaser (5:22)

The new recording opens on the spirited Bright Mississippi and the fervently skewed Bye-Ya and they are backed seamlessly by the playfully flirtatious Green Chimneys and then we get the dutifully embodied In Walked Bud.

Along next is the jauntily perfect Off Minor the recording then rounding out on the languishing Ruby My Dear, coming to a close on the rousingly effervescent, yet strangely drunkly-hued Straight No Chaser.

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