Live at the Five Spot: Discovery!
| Live at the Five Spot: Discovery! | ||||
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| Live album by Thelonious Monk , John Coltrane | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Blue Note Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
5 |
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running time |
42:45 |
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Studio (s) |
Five Spot, New York City |
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Live at the Five Spot: Discovery! is a posthumously released album by the Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane . The recordings, which were made in the New York jazz club Five Spot in the late summer of 1957, were released as a compact disc on Blue Note Records in 1993 . In a technically revised form, they were re-released in 1994 in the 4-CD-CD edition The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk .
background
This live date, recorded in the summer of 1957, shows the pianist and composer Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. This combo's engagement in Five Spot in the summer of 1957 coincides with several other notable live sets cut during that time - Thelonious in Action and its counterpart, Misterioso , wrote Lindsay Planer. These two Riverside albums are professionally documented releases that capture much of the same buzz, although unfortunately they lack Coltrane. Discovery's early CD pressings ! Live at the Five Spot ran a semitone too fast. When the set was remastered for inclusion in The Complete Blue Note Recordings (1994) edition , this was fixed and the corrected version was issued in this box set.
This recording was made on a Juanita "Naima" Coltrane portable tape recorder with a single microphone. The sound and balance are not optimal and there are sporadic mechanical and electrical noises. The actual order of performance is as shown here, except that "Crepuscule with Nellie" opened the set. Part of the final topic of "Epistrophy" is missing because this part of the volume was recorded at a later date. At this point on the CD, the music fades out.
Track list
- The Thelonious Monk Quartet Featuring John Coltrane: Live at the Five Spot: Discovery! (Blue Note CDP 0777 7 99786 2 5)
- Trinkle, Tinkle 9:56
- In Walked Bud 11:06
- I Mean You 13:38
- Epistrophy 5:09
- Crepuscule With Nellie 2:56
reception
Lindsay Planer gave the album in Allmusic 4½ (out of five) stars and said, “The raw nature of this tape recording shows more precisely the reality of experiencing a performance during the days of the Five Spot. What can also be found beyond the sporadic chatter and general hustle and bustle of a New York nightclub in Harlem is arguably the strongest acoustic proof of the unique working relationship these two jazz icons had in common. While the relationship between Monk and Coltrane is central to these performances, bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik and irrepressible drummer Roy Haynes also make an important contribution by allowing enough context to support the soloists and occasionally bring out their own solos. Haynes' interjections on 'In Walked Bud' and 'I Mean You' go beyond the simple progression of the rhythm. "
Jim Santilla wrote in All About Jazz : “Both Trane and Monk expand into 'Trinkle Tinkle' with long solo forays expressing their familiar styles. Trane was in his Sheets of Sound phase and his muscular, confident tone supports the long sentences. Monk shows striking dissonances and quotes from his other melodies while jumping and raging through a relaxed solo encounter. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thelonious Monk - The Complete Blue Note Recordings (Blue Note) at Discogs
- ↑ a b Review of the album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved February 29, 2020.
- ↑ The Thelonious Monk Quartet Featuring John Coltrane. Live at the Five Spot Discovery! at Discogs
- ↑ Jim Santilla: Thelonious Monk: Live At The Five Spot: Discovery! All About Jazz, December 1, 1997, accessed March 4, 2020 .