this record, along with the "alone in san francisco" is a great treat to hear...these two records have been my most played monk sides for months now. I'm especially into the way he interprets ballads, on this record "smoke gets in your eyes" is beautifully done. It's cool to hear him bring his personal style to standards, it's such a great window into how he hears melody and gets his ideas. Also, on this side, the piano feels slightly out of tune, giving it this old barroom kind of sound, which I kind of like here...(although in general I support piano players getting pissed having to play on a lousy instrument)
Monk is awesome!
To one of the reviewers, there is another two-disk set called Solo Monk/Monk Alone which he did for Columbia. I would suggest the two disk set and this download for everyone.
Absolutely agree with BlueStar69: it is one of the great Monk albums but... it's not his only solo set. He (and everyone else) should check out "Thelonious Himself" (with its nearly 22-minute exposition on 'Round Midnight) and "Alone in San Francisco". Both date from what I consider to be his most productive period - that of his Riverside contract when he had an understanding producer in Orrin Keepnews - and demonstrate that Monk was at his best when unencumbered by other musicians (even those as great as Milt Jackson, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Max Roach or the fledgling John Coltrane). Best of all they're both available on eMusic.
Oh, and there was at least one solo album from Columbia (not on eMusic) but, at that point Monk's creative juices were at something of a low ebb.
Finally, there are a few solo tracks on Monk's Prestige and Riverside albums (plus some on his last Black Lion London sessions (also not on eMusic) but worth searching out as they're a cut above the Columbias).
Thelonious Monk is to me (with Duke) the greatest composer of all times,a real icon in music,this album is to my knowledge the only one that he recorded solo, it's a real treasure,some gold that everyone should listen to every morning!
It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »
Ask a jazz fan about Herbie Nichols, and the reaction is likely to be either, "He's a genius," or "Who?" The pianist and composer is the paradigm of a genius neglected in his own time. Nichols's classic mid-'50s sides for Blue Note were all but forgotten when he passed at 44 in 1963. A.B. Spellman memorialized him with a chapter in 1966's Four Lives in the Be-Bop Business, but he didn't get much respect till… more »
A few years ago, Italian saxophonist Daniele D'Agaro was visiting Chicago, and a critic friend put on a fairly obscure record to stump him. D'Agaro listened for about three seconds, said: "Lucky."
Good ears. He knows the distinctive sound of Lucky Thompson after he started hanging out in Paris and playing sumptuous tenor saxophone ballads recalling old idol Don Byas's Parisian sides. On "Solitude" and "We'll Be Together Again," from Lucky in Paris 1959, his tenor's… more »
Can a musician's reputation be harmed by the persistent paying of a compliment? Clark Terry has a warm, plump, utterly distinctive sound on trumpet and its chubby pal the flugelhorn. He's rhythmically assured at any tempo, and has a deep feeling for the blues. But some writers fixate on how he has "the happiest sound in jazz," as if one trait defines his art.
To be fair, it's not a rep he's run away from, having… more »
![Monk's Music [Original Jazz Classics Remasters] album cover](http://images.emusic.com/music/images/album/124/499/12449961/155x155.jpg)
