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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great intro to one of jazz's finest, July 18, 2001
This review is from: Columbia Years 1962-1968 (Audio CD)
Thelonious Monk was a true musical innovator. Applying his profound imagination to traditional stride & swing styles, his technique provoked the far reaches of bebop and inspired the abstractions of jazz to come. However, as impressive as all this may sound, Monk's work for Columbia has taken a lot of flak over the years. Some people say all he did during this period was rerecord extended versions of his 'greatest hits,' and to a certain extent, that's true. But don't believe for a second that the music he produced during this era was below Monk's standards. The folks at Sony just released a mostly excellent 3CD boxed set entitled The Columbia Years. Split between live and studio sessions, the box contains several previously unreleased & newly restored performances from the entire catalog. His first two albums for the label, Monk's Dream and Criss-Cross, are among his best--the latter becoming his only album to make it onto the pop charts. Like the recently released Prestige box, this collection aims to push Monk's '60s music into the spotlight shared by his Blue Note and Riverside classics. Disc one finds Monk in the studio, in trio and quartet settings, beginning with the `semi-unreleased' complete take one of "Bye-Ya." The version that appeared on Monk's Dream was a composite of takes one and three. This marks the first time that the complete first take has been issued. "Think of One" is a previously unreleased take, as is the cover of Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose." One of the coolest tracks on disc one is the vocal version of "In Walked Bud," now restored to its original running time. The second disc starts with two unreleased takes from the somewhat controversial big-band album, Monk's Blues. Maligned as they may be, the Oliver Nelson-arranged sessions nonetheless produced the lovely "Reflections." You can't have a Monk compilation without "Blue Monk," and this one's no exception. However, there are several versions out there that are far superior to the overblown rendition used here. Up next are five solo piano numbers, including the one that most people associate directly with Monk--"'Round Midnight." Moving into the live material, disc two continues with three cuts from the superb Big Band and Quartet In Concert album. This was one of Monk's greatest recordings and represents a highpoint in his lengthy career. Recorded at New York's Philharmonic Hall, Monk and his 10-piece band serve up inspired versions of "Played Twice" and his classic collaboration with Coleman Hawkins, "I Mean You." Disc three is probably the best of the box, getting off to a great start with a rousing live performance of "Nutty" from 1963's Newport Jazz Festival. From there, things move back across the country to the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival in California for a stunning "Straight, No Chaser." The third disc also includes two sublime tracks from the Warner Brothers documentary of the same name--"Evidence" and "Epistrophy." The last four tracks on this CD are taken from Monk's exhilarating gigs at the It Club and the Jazz Workshop. Overall, The Columbia Years is a fine collection by one of America's greatest composers. As with any compilation like this, each listener is sure to have his or her favorites that aren't included. But as Peter Keepnews states in his liner notes: "Here is the sound of a great artist in his prime, working remarkably fresh variations on his own remarkable repertoire, surrounded by musicians who understand his music and share his vision." You can't ask for anything more than that.
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12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Making a Profit on the Prophet, August 26, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Columbia Years 1962-1968 (Audio CD)
Monk's idiosyncratic style is a jewel in the crown of jazz. This three-CD box, meant to be a survey of his best work for Columbia, holds some interest, but his finest work was on Blue Note, Prestige and Riverside. In fact, the lion's share of the songs on "The Columbia Years" previously had been recorded for one of the above mentioned labels. Further, "The Columbia Years" includes lots of previously unissued takes and restored versions of previously edited takes. This would be fine for a Monk "rarities" album, but not for a purported "best of" collection. The only reason for their inclusion in place of the takes previously deemed superior is to encourage sales of the box to those Monk completests who have most of the original versions of songs on "The Columbia Years" already. Thus, those of us who want the best of the Columbia years have to settle for obscurities to attract more sales in place of important, quality recordings for Columbia that were left off in their stead. Finally, the packaging, though innovative and nice looking, is not user friendly and does not securely hold or protect the discs. All in all this compilation is a bust. For a better survey of his genius, I would recommend these far superior single-disc collections: "The Best of Thelonious Monk: The Blue Note Years (Blue Note)," "Thelonious Monk (Prestige)," and "Thelonious Monk and the Jazz Giants (Riverside)." These three individual discs contain about two-thirds of the songs on the three discs comprising "The Columbia Years" and many Monk "hits" not recorded for Columbia or not in this album. And these individual discs provide a large variety of supporting players, who happen to be a "who's who" of jazz legends as well: John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Harold Land, Thad Jones, Johnny Griffin, Phil Woods, Philly Jo Jones, Clark Terry, Donald Byrd, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Milt Jackson, Kenny Dorham, Lou Donaldson, Paul Chambers, etc.--UNLIKE "The Columbia Years" with its very limited supporting cast.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great set -- shoddy packaging, August 27, 2001
This review is from: Columbia Years 1962-1968 (Audio CD)
Mostly a great set of music that goes a long way toward dispelling the myth that Monk's Columbia sides weren't worthy of him. Unfortunately, this set drops a star because of the shabby packaging. It's artistically quite nice, but Columbia makes the same mistake that it did with Armstrong's Hot Fives set -- the way the discs are housed is stinko. This time around, they're held in place (at least for a while) with little rubber hubs glued to the cardboard folder. While it's charming to have the black hubs as part of Monk's beard when the CDs are in place, it's not going to be as charming when the hub glue loosens after a few disc removals, and the hubs fall off or the glue gets on the discs themselves. In short, Music: 5 stars, Package Execution: 1 star.
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