Pianist Bruce Dudley leads his quartet playing music from Thelonious Monk's Underground album & Miles Davis' album Nefertiti, with Don Aliquo on saxophone, Jack Aylor on bass and Ryan Brasley on drums.
Underground is the seventh studio album that Thelonious Monk recorded for Columbia Records. It featured Monk on piano, Larry Gales on bass, Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, and Ben Riley on drums. It was the last Monk album featuring the Thelonious Monk Quartet. The album cover image depicts Monk as a French Resistance fighter in the Second World War, an homage to longtime patroness and friend Pannonica de Koenigswarter, who had served in the resistance, and whose likeness also appears on the cover.
Miles Davis' last fully acoustic album, and fourth album by Davis's Second Great Quintet, was known for the unusual title track, Nefertiti, a 16-bar tune written by Wayne Shorter on which the horn section repeats the melody numerous times without individual solos while the rhythm section improvises underneath, reversing the traditional role of a rhythm section. Davis' album Nefertiti was released in January 1968, the same month Monk's Underground was recorded.
Bruce Dudley is a Steinway Concert Artist and has been performing jazz piano for over 40 years on concert stages, in clubs, and private residences throughout North and South America. He specializes in the Great American Songbook, as well as in the rich history of American jazz styles, from Ragtime and Stride to Modernism, Post Modernism, and performance of original music. In addition to his work as a solo artist, he leads a trio, quartet, and larger ensembles, with horns and/or strings, while also enlisting the award winning voice of his wife, Sandra Dudley. An active educator, Dudley has presented clinics across Canada, the United States, and in Colombia, South America. His recordings as a leader include DPSW Quartet - Live at the Cave (2019), The Solo Sessions (2012), Mostly Monk (2010), and Semblance (1997). Dudley has also performed with artists Aretha Franklin, Crystal Gayle, Nelson Riddle Orchestra, Herb Ellis, Randy Brecker, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Ink Spots, and has played keyboards for over 35 touring Broadway shows, including Beautiful, Wicked, Jersey Boys, Guys and Dolls, Grease, Fiddler on the Roof, Legally Blonde, among others. Bruce Dudley has published articles for Downbeat magazine and presented scholarly research at conferences in the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States. His book 25 Piano Etudes in Idiomatic Styles was published in 2021 by Keuka Waters Music. Dudley is Associate Professor of Music at Belmont University. He has a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado, a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from the Eastman School of Music, and a Bachelor of Science in Music Business and Technology from New York University.
"As the leader, Dudley set the evening's tone with a supple, rich blend of assertive melodic statements, delightful accompaniment, first-rate phrasing, counterpoint and harmonizing." Ron Wynn - ArtsNash
"Dudley, whose fluent lines jet around the keyboard, absorbing motifs into the stream, without a split second of hesitation, at any point of rhythm in the bar, are stunning to listen to…" HALIFAX CHRONICLE HERALD
"Dudley plays the piano with such grace and authority that he has quietly become the pianists that other pianists go to hear." HOUSTON POST
