Misterioso [Import]

Thelonious Monk | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 6, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Musicrama/Koch
• ASIN: B000031VTG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,617,597 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Nutty

2. Blues Five Spot

3. Let's Cool One

4. In Walked Bud

5. Just a Gigolo

6. Misterioso

7. 'Round Midnight [*]

8. Evidence [*]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Johnny Griffin at his Best, July 13, 2005

By 

A. K. L. "flamotte" (Steilacoom, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Misterioso (Audio CD)

I won't review this CD as a whole since many others have already. But in all these reviews I note scant mention of Johnny Griffin. In this live session from that now defunct little hole-in-the-wall, the Five Spot, Grif shows why he is considered the 'fastest tenor alive.' He's also the most passionate. His solos on this session are consistently amazing in their dexterity, imagination, and sheer emotional charge. He often moans ecstatically as he blows flourish after flourish of blue fire, yet never takes himself too seriously. He truly GETS Thelonious: the wry twinkle of Monkish humor. The second cut, 'Blues Five Spot,' is one of the greatest tenor solos of all time (See my Listmania, "Great Tenor Sax Solos.") Astonishing speed and melodic invention with the trio are followed by an un-accompanied cadenza of clean blues logic, topped off by the theme from Popeye the Sailor Man. Sonny Rollins was more magisterial and conscious of his greatness when he played with Monk; Trane was more esoteric and, well, heavy; but no one played Monk with more understanding than Johnny Griffin: they were friends for life. Grif knew the secret of Monk. The Master wasn't avant garde and he wasn't heavy: he was funky, blue, and full of laughter. Despite the primitive quality of the recording, and the idiots at the bar who keep dropping their glasses, this sizzling July evening in 1958, in the hippest of New York bars, at the heart of a by-gone era, is captured for all time here in one of the GREAT live jazz recordings.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tragically underrated, spectacular album, October 12, 1999

By 

k.krable "kk" (stanfoca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Misterioso (Audio CD)

Monk fans who instinctively think of Charlie Rouse should listen to this album; Johnny Griffin is in excellent form (e.g., "Let's Cool One"). Some first-rate drumming too (solo on "In Walked Bud" is downright melodic). The reviewer that dinged this wasn't listening very well. Buy it and see!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Misterioso is amazing, September 15, 2004

By 

BigT "READREADREAD" (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Misterioso (Audio CD)

Misterioso, the title track on this album, is absolutely my favorite Monk song. I'm not a musician but it sounds so atonal yet perfectly melodic I can't think of another artist that can pull that off. I wish I could have seen him play and heard a 20 minute version!