The Monkious are Portuguese: Coimbra-based guitarist Marcelo dos Reis, fellow Portuguese Rotterdam-based prolific double bass player Gonçalo Almeida, and German Rotterdam-based drummer Philipp Ernsting (who plays with Almeida in the Albatre, Ritual Habitual, and Misanthrope trios). The debut album of the trio is dedicated to six iconic pieces of Thelonious Monk, but suggests loose, free improvised versions of these pieces. The album was recorded live on The Monkious’ third performance at Salão Brazil in Coimbra in January 2023.

This pianoless trio is comprised of musicians who usually focus on their own original music and free improvised music. Therefore, the Monk’s interpretations of dos Reis, Almeida, and Ernsting are clearly not «straight», and use the skeletal outlines of these iconic pieces as a starting point for labyrinthine, improvised searches for clues left behind by the pianist who has left the planet more than forty years ago.

The Monkious’ irreverent deconstructions of Monk’s pieces respect the master’s timeless, idiosyncratic legacy but are not bound by it. Dos Reis, Almeida, and Ernsting play with the harmonic structures, pushing the cyclical, rhythmical patterns into tense and intense, almost punkish, free terrains, with great passion, adventurous, and inventive spirit. The lyrical «Well You Needn’t» becomes a restless, powerful improvisation, and «Bemsha Swing» never swings. The Monkious stretch their muscles on the extended, urgent interpretations of «Evidence» and «Blue Monk» as if they are possessed by the spirit of Monk, and as an encore, a version of «Straight, No Chaser».

Eyal Hareuveni 

Philipp Ernsting (drums), Gonçalo Almeida (double bass), Marcelo dos Reis (electric guitar)