Ben Riley - Grown Folks Music

The engaging and elegant, seventy-eight year old Savannah, Georgia-born, Harlem-raised drummer Ben Riley - a mainstay in Thelonious Monk's magnificent sixties combos and a founding member of the monk repertory ensemble Sphere - takes a giant step forward as a leader on his Sunnyside recording, Grown Folks Music, featuring tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery. Backed by bassist Ray Drummond and guitarists Avi Rothbard and Freddie Bryant, this piano-less quartet grooves on seven songs associated with the famed Monk playbook.