Search - Thelonious Monk :: Monk

Not quite as good as the previous couple albums, but still g

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 10/06/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Thelonious Monk's fourth album on Columbia, simply titled "Monk", is yet another album of astounding high quality. One thing about Monk-- he's famous as a songwriter who really didn't write a huge volume of material-- less than eighty compositions by Monk have been released over the span of his career. As such, albums in the '60s typically featured reinterpretations of old material and standards, which made the unnervingly high quality of his early Columbia sessions noteworthy. This album, the first by a group Monk would work with for the next four years (longtime tenor sax partner Charlie Rouse, bassist Larry Gales, and drummer Ben Riley) is no exception.



"Monk" is also noteworthy for featuring two compositions previoulsy unrecorded-- "Children's Song (That Old Man)" and "Teo". The former has a bouncy rhythm and a sing-song melody, with Rouse and Monk both drawing inspiration from the piece and digging in deep. The latter, named for producer Teo Macero, is an aggressive, almost boppish midtempo piece with a fantastic staggered melody line stated in unison by Rouse and Monk, but seems to not be particularly inspirational to the soloists. A third original ("Pannonica") is performed as well-- a lovely midtempo blues, Rouse played this one several times with Monk in digs in deeply (on both this and the alternate included).



Monk also selects four standards to work with as well, "Liza (All the Clouds'll Role Away)" is downright ecstatic and happy-- Riley is positively brilliant, overflowing with energy and pushes the piece to higher and higher heights and Monk's playing is remarkably agile and exciting. Likewise, piano feature "I Love You (Sweetheart of All My Dreams)" finds Monk in a rather inventive mood, performing in an oddly dischordant and lilting rhythmic pattern. The other two standards performed ("April in Paris" and "Just You, Just Me") are more familiar for Monk and are somewhat less inspired in their performance.



This reissue has been remastered with the same stunning sound that the rest of the recent Columbia remasters (the ones without the purplish/blue border on the CD artwork) feature-- clean and distinct, well balanced, and with all the instruments singing. The session is augmented by three bonus tracks-- alternate of "April in Paris" and "Pannonica" and a rather unique medley of standards "Just You, Just Me" and "Liza", both featured separately on the session. It sounds as if Monk felt inspired, because midway through 'Just You', he inserts the "Liza" melody. Rouse, showing just how psychic their interaction is, jumps in quickly. While the performance is exciting, it's really a shame Monk decided to split these up in the end and not develop this medley further, with a little work, this could have been fantastic.



I gave this one three stars, only because it's not quite as good as the previous three Columbia albums-- this rating is really comparative more than anything else, most artists would be lucky to put out an album this good. Recommended."