Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Bye-Ya [#] - Thelonious Monk
2. I Mean You
3. Evidence
4. Epistrophy
5. (When It's) Darkness on the Delta - Thelonious Monk,
6. Played Twice - Thelonious Monk Quartet, Thelonious Monk Quartet

Disc 2:

1. Misterioso [#] - Thelonious Monk Quartet, Thelonious Monk Quartet
2. Epistrophy - Thelonious Monk Quartet
3. Light Blue [#]
4. Oska T.
5. Four in One
6. Epistrophy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47657 in Music
• Released on: 1994-06-14
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Live

Amazon.com essential recording
Arranger Hall Overton did a brilliant job of translating Thelonious Monk's distinctive compositions (and even a piano transcription) to a big band, both for an earlier Town Hall concert and for these 1963 recordings at Philharmonic Hall. Monk was at the peak of his belated celebrity, and he and the other musicians tear into this demanding music with a mix of authority and joyous abandon. Cornetist Thad Jones and altoist Phil Woods are among the big band's fine soloists, while Monk's regular drummer, Frankie Dunlop, is outstanding, a genuinely melodic player who could inspire the big band as well as the working quartet. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

The rematch
In the late 1950s Monk made his first big-band disc, a live concert recorded at Town Hall. The charts were by Hall Overton; the featured soloists aside from Monk were Charlie Rouse (one of his earliest appearances with Monk), Phil Woods & Donald Byrd. More or less the same format is adhered to with Monk's second big-band date, recorded in Dec. 1963 at Lincoln Center: the Overton charts include one piece with an arrangement of a previously recorded Monk solo (on the Town Hall date it was "Little Rootie Tootie"; here it's "Four in One", the solo lifted from the Blackhawk album on Riverside); Rouse & Woods are present again, with Thad Jones on cornet the other main soloist. The original album was chopped down a bit, omitting several tracks & editing out some of the drum solos; it's restored here, & while one might regret the inclusion of all those drum solos it's inarguably an improvement to have the unreleased tracks.

In some ways the best stuff on the album isn't the big band but the quartet & solo tracks that serve as an interlude: "When It's Darkness on the Delta" is one of Monk's best solo performances, & "Misterioso" is superb. The program is mostly less-frequently encountered Monk tunes like "Light Blue", "Four in One" & "Played Twice", which makes a nice change of pace from Monk's run of Columbias (where the repertoire ended up rather heavy on warhorses like "Blue Monk" & "Ruby My Dear"). -- There is even one new tune, "Oska T.": no-one will ever claim this as one of Monk's greatest compositions--it's little more than two riffs soldered together with a typically Monkian sense of humour (they barely fit together!). It's still a fascinating track, with Thad Jones's solo almost completely setting aside the chords. Woods & Rouse are as usual hard-hitting though a bit predictable in their improvising strategies--though Rouse by now was so attuned to Monk's music that his displacements of the beat can be as bewildering as the master's--and Frankie Dunlop's scrappy drumming is a pleasure to hear. (Whatever happened to Frankie Dunlop?) The one real disappointment is the same as on the Town Hall concert: it's a great band, & yet most of the players aren't allotted a solo. Could it have hurt to give Steve Lacy, Eddie Bert or Nick Travis a solo?

Monk only recorded twice again as part of a larger group (the Nonet disc from Europe & the very late, & rather disappointing, encounter with Oliver Nelson). That makes this an especially valuable recording.

Gotta Have It
If I had to pick recordings for a stay on a desert island, this would be one of them. All of the tunes are great, and the CD provides recordings left out and edited down from the album, which I played many, many times. I'll just mention a couple of the cuts here.

"I Mean You" is absolutely fabulous. Frankie Dunlap replies in his solo to what the others had done, and the soloists (Jones, Woods, and, ahem, oh well, Rouse) seemd to be on the same frequency. This tune really rocks.

I don't know why this album isn't looked upon with such favor by many people. It is great. And for those who question Monk's skill as a pianist, sit back and take in his solo interpretation of "Darkness on the Delta."

Overton's arrangements are great. It's just too bad more of these recordings weren't made.

As Good As It Gets
This is, all in all, remarkably demanding music that for all its complexity swings the house down. I can only echo the praise other reviewers have heaped upon this extraordinary concert. As good as all the soloists are, Monk simply defines himself in a separate class, an orchestra unto himself. "Four In One," with its scoring of Monk's recorded solo, is the premier track, but one cannot overlook "Evidence" --one of the most remarkable minimalist compositions of modern music in any idiom-- which thrives from Monk's conclusion of his solo with the rhythmic riff picked up by the entire band. And who but Monk could resurrect "Darkness on the Delta," a song not recorded for thirty years at the time of this concert?