Customer Reviews

Essential Thelonious Monk

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Monk is my absolute favorite, I have dozens of his albums and box sets. The quality on this CD is great, the song selections are great. The only thing I would recommend is that if you plan on buying more of Monk's recordings this "Greatest Hits" CD will kind of spoil it for your. You remember the best of the Eagles, Steve Miller Band, Beatles, Elvis whatever. You'll never want to buy another album because some of the songs will be on it. If you just discovered monk go get Mysterioso, Straight No Chaser or Monk's Blues. It's not like you'll find any bad tracks on those albums, so why just eat the frosting! I love that they are remixing all this great music!

this CD is a good overview of the music of Thelonious Monk, so if you are not prepared to go out and buy all of his CD's, just want to get a feel for his masterful piano playing, then you should buy this CD. Great selections, great recordings, you will definitely not be disappointed.

This is a great CD to really get a sampling of Monk. Has a good mix of tunes. I usually prefer Monk playing versions alone, Or with his famous quartet-with Rouse, Gales, and Riley, though, this one is very satisfying! "Essential Thelonious Monk" is a CD that anyone would enjoy!

Pick up the most important album of the present millenium--"Thelonous Monk with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall"--which begins with the absolutely essential "Monk's Mood" (excluded from the present collection), then go to the almost equally essential "The Thelonious Monk Trio" or "The High Priest" (make sure it's one that includes "Reflections" from 1952-53). Now pick up Roberta Gambarini's "Easy to Love," including the medley reproducing the emotion, intellect and spirituality of the the aforementioned two Monk tunes. Not only will you gain an entrance to Monk's music, but you'll be privileged, indeed doubly enriched, to hear it through the alert ears of someone who hears all of the inscrutable and profound beauty that, for some reason (because we're too close to it?), most Americans find elusive, difficult or impossible to relate to. Otherwise, for a rich sampling of Monk's music and inimitable piano touch, this collection is pretty good as far as samplers go. Monk recorded all of these tunes dozens of times, so unavoidably some of the tracks will not be listeners' favorites. (The only real disappointment, from this listener's standpoint, is the decision to go with the much shorter, later version of "Brilliant Corners," the recording that is generally considered most responsible for Monk leaving a small jazz label (Riverside) and signing on with a major label (Columbia--ironically, at about the same time as the Columbia was letting go of Duke Ellington). The later version is not only shorter but has a treblish "processed" sound that's likely to strike some close followers of Monk as the antithesis of what his music was about.

For those of you, like myself who've never heard Thelonious Monk before this CD is exceptionally a jewel. If only it were in SACD format but CD's didn't exist at the time. The CD's excerpts are clearly remastered which gives an audiophile a great audible trip.

This CD is so outstanding that I have not yet removed it from my CD player.

This vinyl record arrived earlier than predicted. The packaging was excellent; the record itself was in superior condition. Would order again, without hesitation.

If you like jazz, you must like Thelonious Monk. This CD has a nice selection of recordings, some solos, some with backup, and some live with great band members.
For musical purists, he may be a little hard to listen to. But once you get past the intentional off-notes, you can feel the spirit with which this man played. It is, for the most part, happy music, free as a child would be romping through a musical landscape.
That's how this music makes me feel.