Clarinetist Ben Goldberg and drummer Scott Amendola formerly co-led the trio Plays Monk, in which they, well, played tunes by composer Thelonious Monk with bassist Devin Hoff. One bass switch to adventurous player/composer Todd Sickafoose later, the band take a different tack on Here To There. Using the bridges in Monk tunes as a starting point, the trio leaps off into a set of original songs. The bridge of “In Walked Bud” becomes a new piece called “In Walked,” “Epistrophy” turns into “Sad Trophy,” “Introspection” becomes “Interospection,” etc. It’s a ballsy move, as the players – all of whom are accomplished composers themselves – expand on Monk’s genius, adding their own ideas and filtering the results through their own distinctive chemistry. Thus “Sad Trophy” takes on a near-Middle Eastern flavor, a direction that suits Goldberg’s snake-like winding, while “Interospection” dives inside itself through the tunnel of Amendola and Sickafoose’s shuffling rhythm – all still respecting Monk’s flair for unique melodies and his quirky sense of humor. The band really gets into the spirit with the three-part songs “Lions Heart” and “Porch Concert Material,” providing some of the record’s best moments with original bridges connecting the dots to songs based on someone else’s bridges. Admittedly, the concept becomes dizzying if given too much thought, but there’s no real need for that. It’s too easy to simply enjoy the sounds of three pals with a shared devotion to one of jazz’s greatest writers taking the master’s ball and running with it.
