Alan Monasch

BY APHRODITES MUSE
Last Wednesday's open mic at Max's Cafe was a special night, as I had the opportunity to see Blues musician Alan Monasch present some of his finest work, the culmination of forty years of translating life experiences into song. Monasch's style of jazzy, smokey Blues, performed on keyboard or guitar, combined with his gritty vocals to weave his stories of love, loss, despair, and redemption. His well-written songs were brought up to another level when Dennis Haneda of The Courtney Janes joined Monasch on several songs on his Stratocaster and Trent Boeschen sat in on drums. Haneda is the host of the open mic at Max's, and he and Boeschen, both highly accomplished musicians, make themselves available to sit in on performances by guest artists. With Monasch, they were impeccable in their execution, without any previous rehearsal. They arranged their own parts to fit in each of the seven songs they participated in (Monasch also performed two songs solo), after being given just the key and tempo of the song. All of these songs were written by Monasch, with Haneda and Boeschen hearing many of them for the first time.

Monasch gave a comfortable and confident performance, with all the songs sounding smooth, in spite of the noisiness and chatter of a restaurant and bar and the presence of unfamiliar sidemen giving their own interpretations of the songs. They sounded so good together that Monasch should consider performing with Haneda and Boeschen as a trio in future gigs. These videos taken at the Max's performance show their great chemistry together.

Monasch hosts a songwriter's showcase every month at the Nomad Cafe in Oakland, and is looking for a venue in Marin to host a weekly Blues jam, after hosting the popular jam at Moylan's in Novato last year. - Local Music Vibe