Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
2. Sophisticated Lady
3. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
4. Black and Tan Fantasy
5. Mood Indigo
6. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
7. Solitude
8. Caravan
9. Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)
10. Memories of You
11. Honeysuckle Rose
12. Darn That Dream
13. Tea for Two

Disc 2:

1. You Are Too Beautiful
2. Just You, Just Me
3. Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are
4. Pannonica (Opening) [#]
5. Pannonica
6. Brilliant Corners
7. Bemsha Swing
8. I Surrender, Dear

Disc 3:

1. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You [Take 5]
2. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You [Take 7]
3. I Should Care [Take 1][#]
4. I Should Care [Take 2]
5. I Should Care [Take 3]
6. 'Round Midnight [In Progress]
7. 'Round Midnight [Take 7]
8. April in Paris
9. I'm Getting Sentimental over You
10. Monk's Mood [False Start][#]
11. Monk's Mood

Disc 4:

1. Functional [Take 1][Alternate Take]
2. Functional [Take 2]
3. All Alone
4. Crepuscule With Nellie [Take 1][#]
5. Crepuscule With Nellie (Breakdown) [#][Excerpt]
6. Blues for Tomorrow
7. Off Minor [Take 4]
8. Off Minor [Take 5]
9. Abide with Me
10. Crepuscule With Nellie [Takes 4, 5][#]
11. Crepuscule With Nellie [Take 6]

Disc 5:

1. Epistrophy [Fragment]
2. Epistrophy
3. Well, You Needn't (Opening) [#][Excerpt]
4. Well, You Needn't
5. Ruby, My Dear - Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk
6. Ruby, My Dear - John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk
7. Nutty
8. Trinkle, Tinkle
9. Straight, No Chaser [Take 1][Alternate Take]
10. Straight, No Chaser [Take 3]
11. Rhythm-A-Ning

Disc 6:

1. I Mean You [Take 1][Alternate Take]
2. I Mean You [Take 2 Alternate]
3. I Mean You [Take 4]
4. 'Round Midnight
5. Decidedly [Take 4]
6. Decidedly [Take 5]
7. Sweet and Lovely
8. Coming on the Hudson
9. In Orbit
10. One Foot in the Gutter

Disc 7:

1. Trust in Me
2. Let's Cool One
3. Pea-Eye
4. Argentia
5. Moonlight Fiesta
6. Buck's Business
7. Flugelin' the Blues
8. Very Near Bllue
9. Evidence [#]
10. Blues Five Spot
11. In Walked Bud/Epistrophy (Theme)

Disc 8:

1. Unidentified Solo Piano
2. 'Round Midnight
3. Bye-Ya/Epistrophy (Theme) [#]
4. Light Blue
5. Coming on the Hudson
6. Rhythm-A-Ning
7. Just a Gigolo
8. Blue Monk
9. Evidence
10. Epistrophy (Theme)

Disc 9:

1. Nutty
2. Blues Five Spot
3. Let's Cool One
4. In Walked Bud
5. Misterioso
6. Epistrophy [Theme #2]
7. In Walked Bud
8. Blue Monk

Disc 10:

1. Rhythm-A-Ning
2. Monk's Mood
3. Friday the 13th
4. Little Rootie Tootie
5. Off Minor
6. Thelonious
7. Crepuscule With Nellie
8. Little Rootie Tootie (Encore)

Disc 11:

1. Played Twice [Take 1 - 2nd Alternate]
2. Played Twice [Take 2 - Alternate]
3. Played Twice [Take 3]
4. Straight, No Chaser
5. Ask Me Now
6. I Mean You
7. Jackie-Ing
8. Round Lights
9. Pannonica
10. Blue Monk

Disc 12:

1. Ruby, My Dear
2. There's Danger in Your Eyes, Cherie [Take 1][Alternate Take]
3. There's Danger in Your Eyes, Cherie [Take 2]
4. Everything Happens to Me
5. Reflections
6. Remember
7. Bluehawk
8. You Took the Words Right Out of My Heart
9. San Francisco Holiday [#]
10. Just You, Just Me [#]
11. 'Round Midnight [#]
12. San Francisco Holiday [Take 2 Alternate]

Disc 13:

1. I'm Getting Sentimental over You
2. Evidence
3. Epistrophy (Theme)
4. Epistrophy
5. Four in One [Take 1][#]
6. Let's Call This
7. 'Round Midnight
8. San Francisco Holiday [Take 3]
9. Four in One [Take 2]
10. Epistrophy (Theme) [#]

Disc 14:

1. Well, You Needn't
2. Crepuscule With Nellie
3. Jackie-Ing
4. Body and Soul
5. Off Minor
6. April in Paris
7. I Mean You
8. Rhythm-A-Ning
9. Just a Gigolo

Disc 15:

1. Hackensack
2. Epistrophy
3. I'm Getting Sentimental over You
4. Jackie-Ing
5. Body and Soul
6. Straight, No Chaser
7. Crepuscule With Nellie
8. Bemsha Swing
9. San Francisco Holiday
10. Rhythm-A-Ning
11. Epistrophy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #217145 in Music
• Released on: 1991-11-22
• Number of discs: 15
• Format: Box set

Amazon.com
With 15 jam-packed CDs and a well-designed LP-sized booklet with beautiful photos inside, this is the mother of all Thelonious Monk collections. Its supremacy is only in part related to girth and presentation, however. Historians and critics are almost unanimous in appraising the years Monk spent with the then-fledgling Riverside Records as his best. And this set catches it all, from the moments of deeply inspired, quicksilver genius to the foibles, miscues, and studio chatter (which is very minimal). Beginning in 1955 with a trio recording of Ellington tunes to the slew of live recordings that compose most of the last eight CDs, the recordings here end in 1961, with Monk leading a slender quartet fronted by tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, who would remain with him through many of his Columbia releases of the 1960s. Monk's trail up to his lengthy stint with Riverside began with a short tenure at Blue Note, and while those recordings (collected on the four-CD Complete Blue Note Recordings) illuminate the pianist's skewered take on bebop, sessions like the one that makes up the Brilliant Corners single CD (and that appear, of course, here) show ways Monk was doubling back on jazz styles, piling techniques from the swing era--a more moderated approach to underlying swing, for example--onto his odd voicings on chords, which arrest the ear at every turn. Where the Brilliant Corners sessions show Monk working with a rasp-toned Sonny Rollins on tenor and Ernie Henry on alto, the bands expand and contract repeatedly throughout the 30 sessions, all of them annotated by producer and Riverside cofounder Orrin Keepnews in the booklet. You can hear Monk tailoring his Tatum-esque flourishes on the solo sessions that led to Thelonious Himself and Thelonious Alone in San Francisco and then lavishing reams of reeds and brass when in 1957 he corralled John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxes, Ray Copeland on trumpet, Gigi Gryce on alto sax, and Art Blakey for the Monk's Music session or when in 1959 he led a roiling ten-piece in the At Town Hall session. But the most intimate encounters are the smaller ones, with Gerry Mulligan clearly finding all manner of seams and creases to drop his flowing baritone in on the Mulligan Meets Monk session or with Monk finding an ideal chemistry with Johnny Griffin's fast, tight tenor sax lines. Then there is the microtonal poetry of a 20-minute listen-in where Monk explores "Round Midnight," giving listeners a keen glimpse into the mind of one of jazz's most singularly creative minds in history. With any one of the single CDs that together make up this package, a listener could so easily get hooked into buying all the work Monk did for Riverside disc by disc that it makes sense to take the colossal leap and scoop it all up at once--and then dig way in. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

$200 for a Lifelong Friend
Sure, this is expensive, and I really resent the manner in which so many boxed-sets are marketed to exploit "a new angle" of a musician, but this particular example is a goldmine. Save up your ducats (stop smoking, cut out your afternoon candy bar, or start bicycling to work) and buy this box for yourself. Once the box is in your possession, do not rush yourself or over-indulge. If administered properly, this music will reveal its genius to you, and you will create a permanent spot in your life for it in return. Monk made a lot music both before and after the sessions included in this box, but this is the essential stuff.

Unlike much 20th century music, Stravinsky's music embraces the deconstructive chaos of "modern" music, and yet somehow retains the balanced building blocks of the classical era. This also holds true for Monk. You cannot call his music "out" or "free", but he clearly throws a hand-grenade into the bunker of convention. He swallowed the sounds & constructs of conventional swing & bop, and spit them out as angular, fragmented ideas that still retained an organic "listenability". His modern approach is not cold or alienating, but adds depth and sophistication to the modes of jazz that preceded him.

This music could be a lifelong friend. Is $200 too much to pay for a lifelong friend? Buy it, open it up, and take it along for your journey...

Remastering getting long in the tooth
I've got this set, & the music on it is unquestionably among the greatest of Monk's achievements. That said, this was released back in 1986 (when it won a pair of Grammys)...and that's the remastering used on the CD set. The sound quality is acceptable but, even without my making a direct comparison to recent generations of remasterings (& this particular catalogue has lately been in the process of a facelift) it's obvious enough in listening to it that the remastering quality is far from state of the art. Live recordings such as the Five Spot sessions with Johnny Griffin sound particularly in need of a careful dusting. Anyway, I certainly don't wish to dissuade Monk fans from this set--clearly, it's the best way to get a hold of this crucial body of work in one lump, & there are a number of tracks here which aren't available elsewhere now. But it's high time that this set be given a repolishing according to current remastering standards. Calling Mosaic Records......

Monk's finest era
Every Monk fan has a favorite period in the jazz titan's career. Mine is Monk's years on the Riverside label thru most of the 50s. His Blue Note sides are hampered by the time and quality limitations of 40s recording, and his Columbias in the 60s have been criticized for a certain sameyness, but I've never heard a bad word about the Riversides. Monk & Co. were finally able to stretch out at length and be heard in excellent sonic quality. Monk wrote many enduring pieces in the Riverside years ["Brilliant Corners", "Pannonica", "Played Twice", etc. etc.], he was joined by fellow titans on most sessions [Rollins, Coltrane, Blakey, Roach, Haynes, Mulligan, etc.], and Monk himself soloed and comped with an energy and inventiveness that he never surpassed before or after. Quite simply, Monk's Riverside sessions are uniformly wonderful.