Album: Emanuele Arciuli, Round Midnight: Hommage to Thelonious Monk (Stradivarius)

This engrossing series of 22 variations, études and deconstructions of Thelonious Monk's most famous piece was commissioned by pianist Emanuele Arciuli from various American composers with whom he had previously worked.

Several composers, including Milton Babbit, Filippo Del Corno and Uri Caine, position the piece in the hinterland shared by jazz and the contemporary classical avant-garde, while others take specific aspects – Monk's idiosyncratic intervals or distinctive sense of time – as the jumping-off point. Arciuli arranges the pieces into a sequence which culminates in Joel Hoffman's splendid "Cadenza and Finale".

DOWNLOAD THIS Precious Time; Cadenza and Finale; Variation; Monk in the Kitchen