Customer Reviews

Columbia Years 1962-1968

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

What we have here is a yet another failed attempt by Columbia to try and capture the essence of a jazz musician instead of just putting out his entire Columbia catalog in a box set. Why they won't do this, I have no idea. It would save them alot of time and many people money. Thankfully, I never bought this because it is incomplete. I feel bad for the people who did buy this, because they would be better off buying the individual albums.

What really ticks me off about this box set is the failure to include the Monk composition "Locomotive," which was the first song off his record "Straight, No Chaser." Whoever picked these selections out don't have ears! That is one of the best Monk tunes and a very underrecorded one at that.

Anyway, don't waste your money here. Buy the individual cds, you'll be glad you did.

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.

Somewhat less relevent now then it was upon its original release, "The Columbia Years" is a three disc overview of Thelonious Monk's six year tenure with Columbia Records in the 1960s. The material was all being worked up for remastering/reissuing and this set was distributed as an overview of sorts. Perhaps the most important thing the set did was provide an opportunity for the notion of reevaluating Monk's time on Columbia, often maligned by fans and critics, but with the majority of this material having been reissued in the time since this set, the necessity of this set is minimized, but for what it is, it's a fine compilation.

In 1962, Monk was on top of the world-- after brief recording stints with Blue Note and Prestige and a lengthier one with Riverside, he was signed to a major label and he had a working quartet featuring tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse. The quartet format dominates this material-- in fact seven of the nine studio albums Monk did featured his quartet. This is one of the facets that dominates the negative feelings towards Monk's material-- his '50s work featured more varied bands, but this was Monk's first band he'd held together for a while, and as Peter Keepnews points out in the liner notes, no one criticized Miles Davis for several years of recording with a quintet or John Coltrane for the same crime with his quartet. So why Monk? It could be the other facet of discussion concerning the Columbia material-- Monk's increasing reliance on older compositions-- with the exception of the superb "Underground", the albums by and large featured older compositions (although again Keepnews is clear to point out that the Riverside sessions were dominated by material recorded for Blue Note). What is certain is that it's a fine opportunity to hear a number of classic Monk compositions well honed and performed by a quartet who fully understood his music.

The thing about Monk's Columbia recordings is that while they may have surrendered variety a bit, they were consistently of remarkably high quality-- the albums tend to stick out a bit less than the early material, but none of them are disappointing listens. And by the way, as far as the material being recorded-- it's not like "Stuffy Turkey" received dozens of readings over the years (although it was left off here-- the compiler stated one of the goals was to cover the essential Monk compositions in one form or another). The set divides in half between studio and live material, with both about half quartet recordings. The previously unreleased material as previously unreleased as it was when this came out-- the reissues of Monk's Columbia catalog saw to that, although this is the best sonic quality available of any of the material from the as-yet-not-24-bit-remastered "Monk's Blues" (perhaps the most unloved of Monk's albums). And certainly you get quite a bit, from fantastic quartet live readings ("Jackie-ing") to bouncy solo piano ("Dinah") and as far as I know the only vocal number in Monk's catalog ("In Walked Bud" with Jon Hendricks). I'd argue about the track selection, but any fan of Monk likely would-- it is what it is, a reasonable three CD overview of Monk's career.

The set's packaging has come under enormous criticism-- inside the slip case is a book with a brief essay by reissue producer Orrin Keepnews and a more extensive one by Peter Keepnews, and the CDs are housed in a fold-out style digipack with these weird fuzzy holders. While other people have had quite a few problems with these, I've found they hold the CDs rather snuggly.

Admittedly, I haven't exacty talked a lot about the music on here-- that's because truthfully, the set is pretty extraneous with the most recent array of Monk remasters having released the unreleased material, and truthfully as an overview or introduction to Monk, there's better examples-- "Genius of Modern Music Volume 1" on Blue Note is probably the best introduction to his compositions (collecting old singles from the '40s), "Live at the 'It' Club" on Columbia is the best introduction to his great quartet with Rouse and his later work, and the recently found "At Carnegie Hall" is probably the best way to approach Monk in general. Most people who will invest in a three disc set don't need convincing. This one sounds nice, but the material's all available elsewhere (barring the aformentioned two cuts from "Monk's Blues" in stunning remastered quality), newcomers should seek elsewhere, diehards can evaluate whether they really need this.

Granted, many of these pieces are reworkings of his material from other recording sessions, but you most likely own a dozen Charlie Parker versions of "Relaxing" or the Duke's "Satin Doll", so that isn't really a problem, is it?

Get this set for the sound. From the opening moments of "Bye Ya", you feel as if you are sitting on the bandstand, amid Monk's piano and Rouse's sax. Wonderful full, live sound.

My first Monk album was Monk's Dream from Columbia. I loved that album 15 years ago and had been searching for the same satisfaction from the multitude of Monk recordings from the Blue Note Years, Presitge, and Riverside. What Monk's Dream offered that the prior work lacked, was production. Raw, edgy, spontaneous ...yes all those recordings offered that. But I longed for that sense of confidence, tightness and richness of sound Monk's Deream provided. I found that in this set which makes sense since Monk's Dream came out of these sessions at Columbia. So what if these are reworks of the old stuff...they sound just as new and gripping "produced" as they did in their earlier days without big money helping out. WIll I throw out my older stuff and just play this? No chance..there is a time for polish and a time for purity.

Someone asked Monk why he continued to perform and travel and he is rumored to have answered, "To expose the music."
Monk fan's who first encountered him in the 1950s will remember the magic year of 1959: Miles' "Kind of Blue," Monk's "Monk's Dream," Mingus' "Ah Um" and "Dynasty," Brubeck's "Take Five" and soon John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" and "Impressions."
In my mind, those who would listen to Monk fresh will remember that (1) most of Monk's compositions were written and recorded by him before 1950, (2) for me at least, the combination of Monk's piano and Charlie Rouse's tenor with his rhythm sections was the ultimate instrument of the classic Monk recordings (those with Columbia) and, finally (3) the Time Magazine cover story and Columbia's broad distribution were prime reasons for so many listeners to be exposed to "the music" of Monk and the fact that so many classic recordings of his tunes were made by others ("Straight No Chaser," "'Round Midnight," and "Rhythmning" and others -- especially enjoyable are the Tough Tenors -- Lockjaw Davis and Johnny Griffin -- takes on Monk tunes).
Monk's music and his magic muse were marvelous to hear. As he suffered from schizophrenia and no doubt required careful presentation (think of his dances) some "handling" to be permitted to consistently and professionally "expose" his music (think about his wife's gentle and loving "handling" of him in the DVD "Straight No Chaser" documentary) we are privileged to have these wonderful, consistent, professionally recorded and mature recording of a genius of American music by the mature presentation of his chosen accompanists. Sometimes the mature recordings of his unique music through decades of experience and intimate performance can outshine the original recordings.
This is the music presented as Monk struggled so hard to present it in its mature form. We are honored to have the chance to listen to what he wanted us to hear. God Bless Monk.

Although not considered to be Monk's strongest period, I nonetheless would recommend "The Columbia Years" to any jazz fan. The off key and angular playing style of Monk and the warm, rich tones of Charlie Rouse are phenomenal. I have to agree with a previous reviewer who said that the packaging is shoddy, but the music more than makes up for it. One listen to these three discs and you will see why Monk is still loved and cherished today. Disc 3 in particular stands out, with live, and very loose renderings of Monk classics like "Nutty," "Epistrophy," and "Well, You Needn't." And, thankfully, the material from the overdone "Blue Monk" album is minimal. Enjoy!

Though I listened to only a bit of two of the cds and then returned it because they were all scratched due to the notorious crappy packaging, I can say that I'm actually happy things worked out that way with the packaging. I'm much happier with Solo Monk, Monk's Dream, and Criss Cross than I was with what I heard of this set.