At the Blackhawk
| At the Blackhawk | ||||
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| Live album by Thelonious Monk | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Riverside Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
6/8 |
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running time |
46:31 (original LP), 59:00 (CD re-issue) |
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Studio (s) |
Black Hawk, San Francisco |
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At the Blackhawk is an album by Thelonious Monk . The recordings, which were made during a performance in the Black Hawk jazz club , San Francisco on April 29, 1960, were released in 1960 as a long-playing record on Riverside Records and for the first time in 1997 as a compact disc in the Original Jazz Classics series .
background
Thelonious Monk's 1960s quartet (which also included tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse , bassist John Ore and (for a short time) drummer Billy Higgins ) is complemented by two guests in this live session: trumpeter Joe Gordon and the tenor saxophonist Harold Land .
Monk's two-week stint at the Blackhawk turned out to be quite successful, much to the club owner's surprise. Originally a session had been planned in which Monk would play with drummer Shelly Manne , wrote Thomas Fitterling. Joe Gordon was playing in Manne 's band at the time ( Shelly Manne & His Men at The Black Hawk , 1959); the saxophonist Harold Land was called in in San Francisco. “But the musical encounter between Monk and Manne didn't really sparkle during rehearsal, so the decision was made to record the regular quartet, to which Billy Higgins belonged, with the two guest brass on one evening of the regular Monk guest performance at the Blackhawk in San Francisco. "
Track list
Original LP
Thelonious Monk Quartet Plus Two - At the Blackhawk (Riverside Records - RLP 12-323 (mono) / 1171 (stereo))
- A1 Let's Call This (Monk) - 8:32
- A2 Four in One (Monk) - 8:37
- A3 I'm Getting Sentimental Over You ( George Bassman , Ned Washington ) - 6:07
- B1 Worry Later (Monk) - 9:09
- B2 'Round Midnight ( Cootie Williams , Th. Monk, Bernie Hanighen ) - 12:06
- B3 Epistrophy (Closing Theme) (Monk) - 2:00
CD edition
Thelonious Monk Quartet Plus Two - At the Blackhawk (Riverside Records - 00025218630528, Original Jazz Classics - 00025218630528, Universal Music Group - 00025218630528)
- Let's Call This - 8:33
- Four in One - 8:41
- I'm Getting Sentimental Over You (George Bassman, Ned Washington) - 6:14
- Epistrophy (Monk, Kenny Clarke ) - 6:41
- Evidence - 7:09
- San Francisco Holiday (Worry Later) - 9:10
- 'Round Midnight - 12:07 pm
- Epistrophy (closing theme) - 0:59
reception
Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ (out of five) stars in Allmusic and said that the other musicians would enrich the performance; they add some surprising moments that would otherwise have been a conventional but still spirited live session.
According to Thomas Fitterling, this last Monk record produced by Orrin Keepnews for Riverside is not on the conceptual level of other Riverside productions by Monk. “You can tell from the recordings that the guest players [Harold Land and Joe Gordon] could only be briefed on Monk issues by Charlie Rouse in a hurry. They do bravely, even if without any imaginative heights in their solos. The possibilities of a sextet remain unused in the theme arrangements, and so the record has the character of a blowing session on monktitles. "
Editor's note
The two tracks "San Francisco Holiday [Worry Later]" and "Just You, Just Me", which were created the day before the Black Hawk performance with Shelly Manne, appeared in Japan in the compilation Thelonious Monk - The complete Riverside recordings (Riverside VIJ-5102-23, Riv 15RCD-022-2 [CD]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Review of the album at Allmusic (English). Accessed February 1, 2020.
- ↑ See Robin Kelley: Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original .
- ↑ a b Thomas Fitterling: Thelonious Monk. His life, his music, his records. Oreos, Waakirchen 1987, ISBN 3-923657-14-5 .
- ↑ a b Thelonious Monk Quartet Plus Two - At the Blackhawk at Discogs
- ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed February 1, 2020)