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Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Well, You Needn’t.
Since Nudawn enjoyed Art Tatum’s almost inhumanly dextrous performance of Gershwin, I thought I post Gonzalo Rubalcaba’s version of this Thelonius Monk standard. I tend to dislike excessively flashy, technique-oriented stylists, but I find Rubalcaba to be just barely on the right side of showmanship: he uses his remarkable skills to achieve textural and propulsive playing that turns the piano -already a combination of drum and string- into something like a percussion section.
It’s one of the only Monk covers I’ve ever liked, because Rubalcaba actually expands on Monk’s staccato style by making it even more aggressive, more geometric.
