The Complete Riverside Recordings [Box set]

Thelonious Monk | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 22, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 15
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Riverside
• ASIN: B000000ZG5
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,293 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars $200 for a Lifelong Friend, June 24, 2001

By 

Dale Chapman (San Ramon, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Riverside Recordings (Audio CD)

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...

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Remastering getting long in the tooth, February 24, 2003

By 

N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Riverside Recordings (Audio CD)

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......

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monk's finest era, June 24, 1998

By 

John MacLeod "observer" (Guelph, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Riverside Recordings (Audio CD)

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.