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Typhanie Monique and Neal Alger
Typhanie Monique and Neal Alger
Date Posted: November 25 2008
Written By: Chicago Jazz
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With two critically-acclaimed discs to their credit, the jazz duo of Typhanie Monique and Neal Alger release their third CD, YULETIDE GROOVE, a collection of Christmas and holiday favorites with jazz oriented arrangements.
A promotional tour including New York City and the midwest has already begun in support of the new release, including venues such as the Kitano in New York, the Washington in Iowa, and the historic GreenMill in Chicago.
While Monique and Alger were already performing together in a quartet setting in 2002, a local Chicago venue Pops for Champagne asked Typhanie and Neal to peform solely as a duo for Monday night residency. After several years of thoroughly enjoying the process of honing duo arrangements of their favorite songs, jazz or otherwise, Alger and Monique decided to embark in earnest on the duo journey by documenting their musical magic onto disc.
The resulting disc, 2004's INTRINSIC, showed the jazz world that Monique and Alger could deftly move from swing to R&B/hiphop grooves, then on to latin rhythmic feels, and back again while always maintaining improvisational integrity. Indeed, the duo's versatility on INTRINSIC led Cadence magazine to write "the duo combines tradition with heartfelt passion and innovation".
While Typhanie and Neal often perform as a duo, they are certainly not opposed to inviting other talented musicians to share in the music-making. On the duo's second disc, IN THIS ROOM, released in 2007, Chicago-based bossa nova star Paulinho Garcia makes a brilliant appearance on the duo's Brazilian-oriented version of the Jackson 5 classic "Never Can Say Goodbye".
IN THIS ROOM was also not without jazz warhorses like the opener of the disc,Ellington's "Caravan" , which "shows the pair in perfect union, with Monique soulfully scatting as Alger paints wah-wah effected shapes" (DOWNBEAT magazine).
The duo now continues to embrace tradition and modern ideas simultaneously but this time in the songbook of holiday ditties. In the holiday spirit of an inclusive 'musical family', YULETIDE GROOVE, the newest project from Alger and Monique, features many special guests including rising Hammond B3 organ star Tony Monaco. Monaco brings an infectious beat, a rock-solid swing, and warm vocals to the chestnut "Baby It's Cold Outside" while Monique revels in Monaco's vitality, turning in an inspired vocal performance. A horn trio of trumpet, sax, and trombone brings a lush but not overly sentimental flavor to Vince Guaraldi's "Christmastime is Here" and the classic "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". The sultry sexiness of "Santa Baby" is beautifully enhanced by a cha-cha arrangement which features the contagious musical exuberance of latinos pianist Darwin Noguera and trumpeter Victor Garcia. In support of YULETIDE GROOVE, the duo is coordinating a tour that will include dates in New York, the midwest, and other cities across the country (see above). For more information on the tour schedule, please visit www.tymoneal.com. The duo's radio promotion is represented by: New World 'n' Jazz - Neil Sapper - (415)-453-1558.
"Monique excels as scat singer, improviser and ultra-savvy song interpreter" and "It would be difficult to overstate guitarist Alger's role, for he knows how to underscore Monique's lines at one moment, provide rhythmic and harmonic tension the next." -- Howard Reich, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"Solid soul-jazz vocals from Monique that suggest both Sarah Vaughan and Minnie Riperton, top-drawer acoustic and electric licks from the dazzlingly imaginative Alger." -- Christopher Loudon, JAZZ TIMES magazine
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