Spherical

Tim Warfield's eighth Criss Cross leader recording Spherical, which references the middle name of it's primary subject, immortal Jazz pianist, composer Thelonious Sphere Monk is the tenor/ soprano saxophonist's most idiosyncratic and personal document to date. To be specific, Warfield and an efflorescent quintet of virtuoso team players (Eddie Henderson, trumpet; Orrin Evans piano; Ben Wolfe, bass; Clarence Penn, drums) personalize six Monk compositions (Off Minor, Ugly Beauty, Oska T, Gallop's Gallop, Coming on the Hudson, and Round Midnight) and That Old Man (which Monk recorded as "Children's Song" in 1964) as well as an original Warfield blues dedicated to Monk's first employer, Coleman Hawkins.