Thelonious Monk (album)
| Thelonious Monk | ||||
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| Studio album by Thelonious Monk | ||||
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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) |
7th |
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running time |
38:00 |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Hackensack, NJ |
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Thelonious Monk (also Thelonious Monk with Sonny Rollins and Frank Foster or MONK ) is an album by Thelonious Monk . It contains music from two quintet recording sessions by the pianist on November 13, 1953 and May 31, 1954, which were initially released as 10-inch LPs Blows for LP (PrLP 166) and Thelonious Monk Quintet (PRLP 180), respectively. Together Prestige released the recordings in 1956 as a long-playing record under the title Thelonious Monk (LP 7053), with a modified cover and font design by Andy Warhol and his mother Julia Warhola (1891-1971) as MONK (PRLP 7053) and from 1964 also as The Golden Monk (PR 7363). The album was also released as a compact disc from 1996 .
background
The first session took place on November 13, 1953 in New York City; with Thelonious Monk played Julius Watkins (French horn), Sonny Rollins , Percy Heath (bass) and Willie Jones (drums); the title “Let's Call This”, two takes of “Think of One” and “Friday the 13th” emerged. Prestige released the first two tracks as an EP under the title Thelonious Monk Quintet (PREP1352), all three tracks (without the alternate take of "Think of One") on the 10-inch LP Thelonious Monk Quintet Featuring Sonny Rollins - Blows for LP (PrLP 166). The Monk biographer Thomas Fitterling mentions that the session took place under unforeseen difficulties. Julius Watkins stood in for the sick Ray Copeland at short notice , and since Monk and Sonny Rollins, who had the sheet music with them, were held up for two hours due to an accident on the way to the studio, Watkins hardly had time to prepare for the recordings .
Monk then recorded the tracks “We See” and “ Smoke Gets ” in Hackensack on May 31, 1954 with a quintet consisting of Ray Copeland (trumpet), Frank Foster (tenor saxophone), Curly Russell (bass) and Art Blakey (drums) in Your Eyes ”,“ Locomotive ”and“ Hackensack ”. He then worked in Paris before going back to the studio for Prestige in autumn 1954; these recordings are documented on the album Thelonious Monk / Sonny Rollins (PrLP 190), which also contains the title "Friday the 13th", which was created during Monk's session with Julius Watkins on November 13, 1953.
Track list
- Thelonious Monk with Sonny Rollins and Frank Foster - Monk (Prestige - SMJ-6626 (M), Prestige - SMJ-6626, Prestige - PG-6134)
A1 We See (Monk) 5:13
A2 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes ( Jerome David Kern ) 4:29
A3 Locomotive (Monk) 6:20
A4 Hackensack (Monk) 5:09
B1 Let`s Call This (Monk) 5:04
B2 Think of One - Take 2 (Monk) 5:43
B3 Think of One - Take 1 (Monk) 5:37
reception
Scott Yanow awarded the album four (out of 5) stars in Allmusic and said that Thelonious Monk's prestige recordings had been a bit neglected over the years, when - with the exception of a session for Disques Vogue ( piano solo ) - they are the only documentation that are available on the work of this unique pianist-composer as leader during the second half of 1952-1954. Every Thelonious Monk recording is worth listening to, the author sums up, although not strictly necessary.
Also in Allmusic, Lindsay Planer wrote that the recording session, which took place in November 1953 with Julius Watkins, showed an impressive interaction between Rollins and Watkins, while “Think of One” the quintet with its bizarre rhythms, which contained some notable accents from Monk, was harsh drives. The telepathic timing between Monk and Rollins should also be emphasized.
Chris Ingalls wrote in Pop Matters about the LP Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows for LP : “The songs still contain the broken beauty of typical Monk compositions, but the brass adds a dimension that allows the combo to present a more layered sound. Monk, Watkins, and Rollins in particular, all sprawled out with extended solos, especially on the 10½ minute 'Friday the Thirteenth'. You can also hear an early, swinging version of the future standard 'Think of One'. "
On the third 10-inch LP from Prestige, Thelonious Monk Quintet , Chris Ingalls noted: “Here the arrangements are even fuller, since the trumpet / saxophone solo between Copeland and Foster - preferably on the Monk original 'We See' represented - a playful back and forth creates. But Monk himself creates a lush musical atmosphere when he leads the quintet through an idiosyncratic yet gorgeous version of the standard 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes', in which his lively, exuberant fingers dance across the keyboard. The radical sounds that Monk created during this time cannot be overstated - up to this point, Standards never succeeded in conveying a sound that was so groundbreaking and yet so emotionally eloquent. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Monk (Prestige LP 7053) at Discogs
- ↑ Thelonious Monk with Sonny Rollins and Frank Foster - Monk (Prestige PRLP 7053) at Discogs
- ↑ Thelonious Monk - The Golden Monk at Discogs
- ↑ Thelonious Monk Quintet Featuring Sonny Rollins - Blows For LP at Discogs
- ↑ Thomas Fitterling: Thelonious Monk. His life, his music, his records. Oreos, Waakirchen 1987, ISBN 3-923657-14-5 .
- ^ Review of the album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved February 18, 2020.
- ^ Review of the album Thelonious Monk Quintet at Allmusic (English). Retrieved February 21, 2020.
- ↑ a b Chris Ingalls: The Complete Prestige 10-inch LP Collection . Pop Matters, December 20, 2017, accessed February 19, 2020 .