Thelonious Monk / Sonny Rollins
| Thelonious Monk / Sonny Rollins | ||||
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| Studio album by Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Prestige Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
6th |
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running time |
33.49 |
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Studio (s) |
Hackensack, NJ (1-4); WOR Studios, New York City (5) |
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Thelonious Monk / Sonny Rollins is a compilation album by Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins with recordings that were made in three sessions between November 13, 1953 and October 25, 1954 and were initially released on other LPs . The album, which also contains two tracks on which Rollins cannot be heard, was released as a 12-inch album by Prestige Records in 1956 and as a compact disc by Original Jazz Classics in 1987 .
background
At the time the album was released, Monk was already under contract with Riverside Records . The compilation brings together two tracks (“The Way You Look Tonight” and “I Want You to Be Happy”) from the 10-inch album Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk (Prestige PRLP 190) in the recording of October 25, 1954, “Work ”And“ Nutty ”from the 10-inch LP Thelonious Monk Plays (PRLP 189), recorded in trio on September 22, 1954, and“ Friday the 13th ”from the 10-inch LP Thelonious Monk Quintet Featuring Sonny Rollins Blows for LP (PRLP 166), it was recorded on November 13, 1953. (This recording session was actually on a Friday; Rollins was late for the session because of a car accident; Ray Copeland was unable to come because of illness.)
The original 10-inch album Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk came about under strange conditions, wrote Chris Ingalls; Originally conceived as a Sonny Rollins album with bassist Tommy Potter, drummer Art Taylor and pianist Elmo Hope as sidemen, the situation quickly changed when Hope was arrested on drug abuse charges and Monk was called in to replace him to take. As a result, the three tracks recorded with Monk - " The Way You Look Tonight " (1936), " I Want to Be Happy " (1925) and " More Than You Know " (1929) - are all standards. A month earlier there was a one-off concert by Monk and Rollins (with Percy Heath and Willie Jones ), which was advertised as The Greatest in Modern Jazz .
Track list
- Thelonious Monk / Sonny Rollins (Original Jazz Classics - OJCCD 059-2, Prestige - P-7075)
- The Way You Look Tonight ( Jerome David Kern , Dorothy Fields ) 5:12
- I Want to Be Happy ( Vincent Youmans , Irving Caesar ) 7:39
- Work (Monk) 5:19
- Nutty (Monk) 5:16
- Friday the 13th (Monk) 10:35
The recording sessions
| format | occupation | date | title | Comments on other titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thelonious Monk Quintet (PRLP 166, PREP 1352) |
Julius Watkins (fhr), Sonny Rollins (ts), Thelonious Monk (p), Percy Heath (kb), Willie Jones (dr) | November 13, 1953 | Friday the 13th | Let's Call This, Think of One (2 takes), see Monk |
| Thelonious Monk Trio Prestige PRLP 189 |
Thelonious Monk (p), Percy Heath (kb), Art Blakey (dr) | September 22, 1954 | Nutty, Work | Blue Monk, Just a Gigolo (Monk solo), see Thelonious Monk Trio |
| Sonny Rollins Quartet , Prestige LP 190 |
Sonny Rollins (ts), Thelonious Monk (p), Tommy Potter (kb), Art Taylor (dr) | October 25, 1954 | I Want to Be Happy, The Way You Look Tonight | More Then You Know appeared on Sonny Rollins' album Moving Out (1956). |
reception
Lindsay Planer said in Allmusic : “Whether intentionally or by chance, the tracks put together for this LP present Monk in the favorable limits and settings of smaller combos, starting from the intimacy of the trio with Percy Heath and Art Blakey in 'Nutty' to the equally groovy 'Work'. Both use Monk's eerie and pronounced sense of melody and are conspicuous by Blakey's exuberant percussive contributions, which at times lie between Monk's incoherent chords. The larger quartet and quintet are just as inventive and maintain the highly inventive atmosphere. The undeniable highlight, however, is the interaction between Monk and Rollins. ”The author particularly emphasizes the free interpretation of the pop standard“ The Way You Look Tonight ”; “I Want to Be Happy” is just as dazzling. Art Taylor and Tommy Potter "provide a sleek and lighthearted setting for the soloists to weave their inimitable and often contradicting contributions." The final track is "the beautifully dissonant" and expansive title "Friday the Thirteenth," which, ironically, was the first chance collaboration between the two co-leaders. "Rollins is able to twist a sinuous lead through Monk's contrasting chord counterpoint," wrote Planer.
Regarding the game of Rollins and Mok in “Friday the 13th”, Planer wrote: “The sparkling and earthy tone in the tenor saxophone seems to melt between the extremely complex and arithmetic flow of the pianist, whose foundations cleverly build up the bizarre melody and offer Rollins an ample bed. Without question, the results of this partnership illustrate the true strengths of the musicians - both as interpreters and improvisers. ”Although the background combination would change significantly, the mostly positive results of this exchange almost a year later would result in uniformly brilliant interpretations of“ The Way You Look Tonight ”and“ I Want to Be Happy ”lead.
Though the lack of original Monk compositions is to be lamented, “It's refreshing to hear Rollins back in the band, especially when given the chance to hear him solo unreservedly on tracks like the expanded version of 'More Than You Know' . In fact, the overall band dynamic seems to be leaning towards the even more revolutionary sounds of future Monk albums like Brilliant Corners [1956], with breathtaking musicality combined with the kind of modern, unpredictable song structure that Monk would eventually be known for. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Robin Kelley Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. New York: The Free Press 2009, p. 185
- ^ R. Kelley Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. P. 571
- ↑ a b Chris Ingalls: The Complete Prestige 10-inch LP Collection . Pop Matters, December 20, 2017, accessed February 19, 2020 .
- ^ R. Kelley Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. P. 180
- ^ Review of the album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved February 19, 2020.
- ^ Review of the album Thelonious Monk Quintet at Allmusic (English). Retrieved February 21, 2020.