The Jazz Owl
  • Travis Rogers, Jr. -- The Jazz Owl
  • A Love of Music
  • Music Reviews
  • Reviews on Travis Rogers Jr.
  • Meetings with Remarkable People
  • SoulMates by Candlelight
  • Music in Portland
  • Toshi Onizuka
  • The Arts: Film, Literature and More
  • A Love of History
  • Baseball Stories
  • Personal Reflections

Mon David & Josh Nelson make the perfect DNA

8/8/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
In 2007, Mon David uprooted his family and followed his dream to the United States to bring his Jazz skills and talents to American audiences. He is a popular fixture in the Southern California Jazz scene. Now he has released his fourth album, this time with pianist-composer-arranger extraordinaire Josh Nelson, titled DNA (David/Nelson/Agreement).

Mon and Josh are two of the most accomplished and creative forces in the Jazz world today. Individually, they are remarkable. Together, they are unstoppable.

The album opens with Albert Hague and Allan Sherman’s Did I Ever Really Live. Mon and Josh interpret the standard so beautifully and so personally. And they do that with every song on the album. Michel Legrand’s You Must Believe in Spring is a phenomenal piece from a masterful composer. Yet, Mon and Josh handle it with honor and reverence and they return to us one of those beautiful pieces that sometimes goes too long without notice.

They also have no reservations about taking on such standards as Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life or mashups like Straight No Chaser/ Billie’s Bounce from Thelonious Monk/Eddie Jefferson, Charlie Parker with lyrics from Mon David himself.

Then Josh Nelson takes on Bill Evans with the medley In Praise of Bill Evans: I Remember Bill/Very Early/Waltz for Debby. Mon sings of the beauty and impact of Evans’ music while Josh renders the Evans piano is such lush and warm, almost nostalgic, phrasing.

Then Mon puts his own signature to John Lennon’s Imagine. It is delivered with conviction and respect but Mon and Josh certainly make it their own. Mon adds a narrated passage that makes the message even more meaningful.

With other standards like If You Never Come to Me/Skylark (Jobim/Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer) and Blame It on My Youth (Levant/Heyman), the duo pours their hearts and souls into the music that shaped so much of our emotions. And emotion is what comes from hearing these two artists together.

They close the album with Pat Metheny’s Always and Forever. Mon David wrote the lyrics for their version. It is a splendid interpretation of the music of Metheny. It is a beautiful and emotional farewell.

The entire DNA album by Mon David and Josh Nelson is a personal and meaningful revisiting of these wonderful songs. They never subtract from the originals but rather add themselves to what has gone before.
​
This is a marvelous album.
 
 
                           ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    August 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2017
    February 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All
    Aaron Parks
    Akira Ishiguro
    Ches Smith
    Chuck Van Haecke
    Dewa Budjana
    George Colligan
    Goh Kurosawa
    Helen Sung
    Jack Dejohnette
    Kai Kurosawa
    Keith Jarrett
    Matt Mitchell
    Oscar Noriega
    Osmany Paredes
    Peter Erskine
    Pseudocidal
    Ruben Rodriguez
    Sharp Three
    Simakdialog
    Steven Kroon
    Susan Clynes
    Thierry Maillard
    Tim Berne
    Tim Berne's Snakeoil
    Tom Guarna

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.