Andres Vial
Sphereology Volume One Pianist Andrés Vial (pronounced Vee-al) launches a
series of recordings offering new perspectives on the oeuvre of Thelonious
Sphere Monk with the September 28 release of Sphereology Volume One on
Chromatic Audio Records.
It's a
project the Montreal native has been working on since 2005, when he organized
an annual Thelonious Monk Festival in Montreal. "My band played four
nights of Monk's music there," says Vial. "I transcribed about 50 of
his tunes for those gigs, and the festival ran for four years."
Sharing the
front line with Vial on the new album, his fourth, is guitarist Peter
Bernstein, who released his own critically acclaimed disc celebrating Monk in
2008. Vial also employs two different rhythm sections: Bassist Dezron Douglas
and drummer Rodney Green, mainstays of the New York jazz scene, appear on the
first six tracks of the album, which was recorded in the fall of 2017, on the
eve of the Monk Centennial. Bassist Martin Heslop and drummer André White, who
have been Vial's Montreal rhythm section since Monk Fest, appear on the last
three tracks of the album.
"I
consider Peter one of the leading interpreters of Monk's music today,"
Vial says. "He's one of the rare people who if we're on a gig together, I
can call a bunch of practically esoteric Monk tunes and he'll know them. Even
though Monk is a hugely important part of the jazz canon, musicians usually
only play about a dozen of his tunes. There are another 60 tunes that are very
infrequently performed."
Sphereology
introduces listeners to more obscure, rarely recorded pieces over familiar
ones. The opening track, "Bluehawk," is a blues Monk only recorded
once as a solo. In one of the few instances on the album where a song's groove
has been changed from the original, Green uses the infectious New Orleans
Second Line rhythm made famous by drummer Vernel Fournier on Ahmad Jamal's
"Poinciana."
"I had
a few simple arrangement ideas," Vial adds, "but I wasn't really
interested in going into the studio with 10-page-long charts and lots of
reharmonizations. I wanted to keep it loose and just dive in. The musical
interaction that happens within the tunes is the important part."
The other
nine tunes include "Coming on the Hudson," with its unique 18½-bar
form and unusual chord progression, and -- perhaps the most recognizable piece
on the album -- "Think of One," which is re-contextualized with an
Afro 6/8 groove, shifting to swing on the bridge and the piano solo. "Ask
Me Now" is a duo performance by Vial and Bernstein, and the little-known
"Introspection" (composed in 1947) is the oldest Monk song on the
album.
Andres Vial Born in 1979 in Montreal, Andrés
Vial recalls sitting at the piano improvising songs as a child. He began taking
lessons but wasn't interested in learning to sight-read. "I would listen
to my teacher play the piece," he recalls, "and then basically learn
it by ear instead of off the page." He also learned from the classical,
Latin, and pop records he heard around the house.
When Vial
was 11, his mother came home with a copy of John Coltrane's Blue Train. "I
was just floored," he says. "That was the record that really changed
the course of my life, and I was obsessed with it for years to come." He
joined his middle school and high school jazz bands and also began playing
drums and vibraphone.
Andres Vial
Vial studied jazz drums and classical percussion at Montreal's Vanier College
before transferring to the New School in New York, earning a degree in jazz
piano and studying with Bill Charlap, Hal Galper, Joe Chambers, and Buster
Williams. Returning to Montreal, he immediately became active on the jazz scene
as well as joining the Kalmunity Vibe Collective, a grassroots group of
musicians from all over the world working within black musical forms. Through
the collective, he met singer Malika Tirolien (Snarky Puppy, Bokanté) and
joined her band (she appeared on his debut recording, 2007's Trio/Septet).
Vial's three
previous albums -- also including The Infinite Field (2011) and
conception/oblivion (2015) -- reveal that he is not afraid to take risks. His
fidelity to Monk's vision springs not from a lack of boldness, but from a
recognition that it needs no elaboration.
"Monk
tunes are already perfect," says the pianist. "It's impossible to
separate the melody from the rhythmic concept and chord voicings in each
composition. Of course, you don't only want to play Monk voicings the whole
time; you have to find your own way to play the tune.
"I see
it as a two-step process. One, go as deeply as you can into Monk's music, and
two, figure out what you're going to do to bring your own voice to it. That's
what the Sphereology project is really about."
