Thelonious Monk – Complete Albums Collection: 1954-1957 (9 Original Albums On 5 CDS)

Description

Release Date:  2015

Label:  Enlightenment

 

Track List

Disc 1

1. Round About Midnight
2. Off Minor
3. Ruby, My Dear
4. I Mean You
5. April In Paris
6. In Walked Bud
7. Thelonious
8. Epistrophy
9. Misterioso
10. Well You Needn’t
11. Introspection
12. Humph
13. Carolina
14. Hornin’ In
15. Skippy
16. Let’s Cool One
17. Suburban Eyes
18. Evonce
19. Straight, No Chaser
20. Four In One
21. Nice Work
22. Monk’s Mood
23. Who Knows
24. Ask Me Now

Disc 2

1. Blue Monk
2. Just a Gigalo
3. Bemsha Swing
4. Reflections
5. Little Rootie Tootie
6. Sweet and Lovely
7. Bye-ya
8. Monk’s Dream
9. Trinkle Trinkle
10. These Foolish Things
11. We See
12. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
13. Locomotive
14. Hackensack
15. Let’s Call This
16. Think of One (Take 2)
17. Think of One (Take 1)

Disc 3

1. The Way You Look Tonight
2. I Want To Be Happy
3. Work
4. Nutty
5. Friday the 13th
6. It Don’t Mean A Thing
7. Sophisticated Lady
8. I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good
9. Black and Tan Fantasy
10. Mood Indigo
11. I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
12. Solitude
13. Caravan

Disc 4

1. Liza
2. Memories of You
3. Honeysuckle Rose
4. Darn That Dream
5. Tea for Two
6. You Are Too Beautiful
7. Just You, Just Me
8. Brilliant Corners
9. Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are
10. Pannonica
11. I Surrender, Dear
12. Bemsha Swing

Disc 5

1. Abide With Me
2. Well, You Needn’t
3. Ruby, My Dear
4. Off Minor
5. Epistrophy
6. Crepuscle With Nellie
7. ‘Round Midnight
8. Rhythm-A-Ning
9. Sweet And Lovely
10. Decidedly
11. Straight, No Chaser
12. I Mean You

 

Notes

Monk started playing the piano at the age of six. Although largely self-taught, he studied music theory, harmony, and arranging at the Juilliard School of Music. However, he soon moved into jazz, claimed his first residency as house pianist at Milton’s Playhouse, Manhattan, during the early to mid-1940s. Much of Monk’s style was developed during his time at Minton’s, when he participated in after-hours “cutting competitions” which featured many leading jazz soloists of the time. The Minton’s scene was crucial in the formulation of bebop and it brought Monk into close contact with other leading exponents of the emerging idiom. In 1944 Monk made his first studio recordings with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet. Hawkins was one of the earliest established jazz musicians to promote Monk, and Monk later returned the favour by inviting Hawkins to join him on the 1957 session with John Coltrane. Monk made his first recordings as leader for Blue Note in 1947 which showcased his talents as a composer of original melodies for improvisation. Monk spent most of the early and mid-1950s composing, recording, and performing at theatres and out-of-town gigs. After his cycle of intermittent recording sessions for Blue Note during 1947-1952, he was under contract to Prestige Records for the following two years. With Prestige he cut several highly significant, but at the time under-recognized, albums, including collaborations with saxophonist Sonny Rollins and drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach. In 1954, Monk participated in a Christmas Eve session which produced most of the albums Bags’ Groove and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants. Davis found Monk’s idiosyncratic accompaniment style difficult to improvise over and asked him to lay out (not accompany), which almost brought them to blows. However Davis, in his autobiogrpahy, claims that the anger and tension between Monk and himself never took place and that the claims of blows being exchanged were “rumours” and a “misunderstanding”.