Chad Lefkowitz-Brown
Tenor Sax Solo on
Monk's Dream

About

Chad Lefkowitz-Brown's tenor saxophone solo opens the improvisation on this 2018 Standard Sessions recording of Thelonious Monk's Monk's Dream. He takes two choruses of the 32-bar AABA form at 145 BPM with a medium swing feel, engaging with the angular melodic leaps, unexpected rhythmic accents, and harmonic quirks that define Monk's compositional voice. Playing Monk requires a different sensibility than navigating standard chord changes, and Lefkowitz-Brown adapts his typically fluid approach to accommodate the composition's idiosyncratic character. He is followed by Victor Gould on piano and Jonathan Michel on acoustic bass.

Chad Lefkowitz-Brown was 28 to 29 years old at the time.