Bobby Broom Plays for Monk

Bobby Broom, "Plays for Monk" (Origin). Broom is Sonny Rollins' guitarist. Considering that Rollins was one of the greatest performers ever to play on Monk classics ("Brilliant Corners" and "Friday the 13th," to name two), he had as direct a pipeline to Monk's compositional genius as any guitarist these days is likely to have. The result on this trio disc of Monk tunes is close to spectacular. Not only does it bid fair to be Broom's best record, but it's one of the better recent explorations of a jazz composer too often misunderstood (most recently by guitarist Peter Bernstein). His bassist is Dennis Carroll and his drummer is Kobie Watkins and their Monk repertoire even includes a standard on which Monk's skewed acerbities were priceless?"Lulu's Back in Town." Any guitarist playing Monk tunes whose discbegins with "Ask Me Now" and who eschews the omnipresent "Round Midnight" is a professional Monk interpreter. ★★★ 1/2 ( J. S.)