SF Jazz Collective

I will be doing a lot of dates with this San Francisco based octet this year, and I’ve also written some new music for them. We’ll also be tackling the music of Thelonious Monk, in arrangements written by the band.

The tour dates are mostly up here at our site.

Some of my favorite versions of Monk’s music are on the original Genius of Modern Music recordings for Blue Note. They were made in the late 1940s/early 1950s and include almost every tune Monk ever wrote! One of the things that always struck me as special about that music was the concision. Most of the pieces are three minutes long.

I asked the Collective if we could approach our new versions in this way. Everyone was really excited about the idea and inspired to go for it. So — we’ll have something like twelve new (short) arrangements of Monk’s music in the book. I’m working on Criss Cross, Hornin’ In, and Reflections.

And I’m looking forward to joining the others: Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Renee Rosnes, Miguel Zenon, Andre Hayward, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland.