Paris 1969
| Paris 1969 | ||||
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| Live album by Thelonious Monk | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Blue Note Records | |||
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Format (s) |
2 LP, CD, DVD |
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Title (number) |
12/15 |
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running time |
01:01:36 (2LP) |
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| occupation |
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Jacques Muyal, Daniel Filipacchi, Frank Ténot, Jean-Jacques Célérier |
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Studio (s) |
Salle Pleyel , Paris |
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Paris 1969 (as DVD At Salle Pleyel, Paris, 1969 ) is an album by Thelonious Monk . The recordings, which were made in Paris on December 15, 1969, were released on November 26, 2013 as double LP and DVD on Blue Note Records .
background
Thelonious Monk had a tough time in the late 1960s, wrote Thom Jurek. In addition to health problems, the pianist also had some economic problems and was also involved in a dispute with Columbia Records, to which he had been under contract since 1962 and whose marketing department tried to market him based on the model of a rock star (as on the cover of the Monk album Underground (1968) was seen). In addition, he had lost his long-time rhythm section, consisting of bassist Larry Gales and drummer Ben Riley . For his eighth European tour, the pianist hired young, unknown musicians to accompany himself and saxophonist Charlie Rouse : Berklee student Nate “Lloyd” Hygelund on bass and 17-year-old drummer Paris Wright - son of bassist Herman Wright . The tracks “Don't Blame Me”, “I Love You Sweetheart of All My Dreams” (a successful title by Rudy Vallee in 1929) and “Crepuscule with Nellie” were Monk's solo numbers, supplemented by an Ellington Medley on the DVD .
The present concert recording was recorded on the last night of the tour in the Salle Pleyel in Paris and recorded for French television. This was preceded by tour stops at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London as well as appearances in Berlin, Cologne and Italy. Thomas Conrad points to the charged moment in the concert when drummer Philly Joe Jones comes on stage, takes over the drum chair and joins "Nutty". “He is hardly recognizable, with hollow cheeks and missing front teeth. But his tense, dramatic solo is unmistakable, as is his polyrhythms, which give Monk new juice. ”After the ten-minute“ Nutty ”there was a second Monk-Jones collaboration with“ Blue Monk ”that evening, but it did only survived in a one-minute fragment of French television.
The DVD was supplemented by recordings that were made when Thelonious Monk played as a soloist in December 1969 in a television studio in Paris.
Track list
LP
- Thelonious Monk - Paris 1969 (Blue Note B001882101, Laser Swing Productions B001882101, Lower 5th B001882101)
A1 I Mean You 7:21
A2 Ruby My Dear 6:31
B1 Straight, No Chaser 6:49
B2 Bright Mississippi 4:20
B3 Light Blue 7:35
C1 Epistrophy 4:50
C2 Don't Blame Me 4:57
C3 I Love You Sweetheart of All My Dreams (Art Fitch, Bert Lowe, Kay Fitch) 1:35
C4 Crepuscule with Nellie 2:24
D1 Bright Mississippi (reprise) 3:01
D2 Nutty 10:01
D3 Blue Monk 0:58
- All other titles are from Thelonious Monk
DVD
- Thelonious Monk Quartet - At Salle Pleyel, Paris, 1969 (Jazz VIP - 135)
- I Mean You (Monk) 8:18
- Ruby, My Dear (Monk) 6:31
- Straight, No Chaser (Monk) 7:14
- Nutty (Monk) 10:02
- Blue Monk (Monk) 0:58
- Bright Mississippi (Monk) 6:30
- Light Blue (Monk) 7:39
- Epistrophy ( Kenny Clarke , Monk) 4:52
- Don't Blame Me ( Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields ) 4:54
- 3 O'Clock in the Morning (Dorothy Terriss, Julián Robledo) 1:32
- Interview with Thelonious Monk 5:38
- Crepuscule with Nellie (Monk) 2:19
- Sophisticated Lady ( Duke Ellington , Irving Mills , Mitchell Parish ) 4:16
- Caravan (Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Juan Tizol ) 5:57
- Solitude (Duke Ellington, Eddie DeLange , Irving Mills) 4:00
reception
Thom Jurek said in Allmusic , "Monk and band play well on the show - even if they sometimes only swing through the melodies instead of embellishing them." The versions of his classics - " Ruby, My Dear ", " Straight No Chaser ", "Light Blue", "Epistrophy", "Crepuscule with Nelly", "Bright Mississippi" - and others would be played with a sophisticated attitude, albeit without the experiment that they once contained. According to the author, Monk seems to be up to date despite his health problems; his sense of rhythm, harmony, imagination and momentum are abundant.
Thomas Conrad recalls in JazzTimes that Thelonious Monk, who was only 52 years old in 1969, only had twelve years to live. But in terms of his artistic life he was about to end. “In the Salle Pleyel in Paris on December 15, 1969, the flame of his creativity still burned, even if it was like a candle in the wind.” “This strange, frayed, faded document, newly unearthed, can make you cry, sometimes with heartache, sometimes with joy. ”Conrad also praises the solo pieces that Monk performed at the Paris concert; in “Crepuscule with Nellie” every phrase floats before it falls sharply into place. You can see on his face how intensely he has to concentrate on each hard-fought note. "Nellie" ends with a sweaty, ringing tremolo . The melancholy is devastating. “Don't Blame Me” feels like it has been chiseled out of granite with heavy blows. It is like a final summary for the jury.
Monk biographer Robin DG Kelley pointed out that the concert film is "the most important visual record we have of the mature Thelonious Monk." In the Los Angeles Times , however, Chris Barton posed the hypothetical question of whether a document by an artist is The twilight of his career is as important as one that captures his prime. That is the key question in the DVD Thelonious Monk: Paris 1969 , which acts as a kind of accompanying medium for the bittersweet documentary Straight No Chaser from 1988. In just over an hour, Paris 1969 may not show Monk at his best, the author believes, but it shows Monk in all of his battered, unsurpassed brilliance. Sometimes that's enough.
According to Mike Hobart, who reviewed the album in the Financial Times , the adversities of the time, such as the loss of the Columbia contract and the departure of his previous accompanists, had rekindled Monk's sparks. The pianist and saxophonist Charlie Rouse cavort in Monk's wonderful compositions and led their young companions in the process, until Philly Joe Jones finally gets the opportunity to take a late drums master class . The album is more than a curiosity and a must for Monk fans.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Review of the album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 1, 2020.
- ↑ a b c Thomas Conrad: Thelonious Monk: Paris 1969. JazzTimes, March 12, 2014, accessed on February 22, 2020 (English).
- ↑ a b Chris Barton: DVD-CD review: 'Thelonious Monk: Paris 1969' has great moments. Los Angeles Times, November 26, 2013, accessed February 22, 2020 .
- ↑ Thelonious Monk - Paris 1969 at Discogs
- ↑ Thelonious Monk Quartet - At Salle Pleyel, Paris, 1969 (DVD) at Discogs
- ↑ Mike Hobart: Thelonious Monk: Paris 1969. Financial Times, February 14, 2014, accessed February 22, 2020 .