Customer Reviews

Monterey Jazz Festival Live 1964

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I just ordered and received this show along with the Miles Davis Monterey 63 title. The performances and sound quality on both of these discs are excellent. Regarding the Monk set, several of the tunes have certainly been featured on other releases, but all around, the set is pretty energetic. On the last two tunes, "Think of One" & "Straight, No Chaser" the Monk quartet is joined by the MJF Workshop featuring trumpets, trombone, reeds, and baritone sax- the big band ensemble arrangements adding some nice color and embellishment to the two aforementioned tunes. This is a nice new collection of unreleased recordings featuring great jazz artists recorded at Monterey on Monterey Jazz Festival Records. This particular title is also another great Monk release and certainly worth picking up for the old collection!

Recorded sound from live performances is usually not quite up to studio; on the other hand, many live recordings feature artists playing at their most inspired levels. Monk is in great form here but unfortunately the sound is not up to the standards of Monk's Riverside or Columbia live work. Monk enthusiasts will still want this CD for the four energetic and creative quartet pieces. Steve Swallow is not the first name to come to mind when thinking of Monk's bass players. He was asked to play with the group just for this Monterey performance. He does well enough but still doesn't sound quite like a perfect fit. I would call the bass work here skillful but not very soulful. It's a relatively minor complaint, though. Swallow certainly doesn't hamper the group's swing. 'Evidence' in particular has everyone really digging in and the playing is very tight. Charlie Rouse has been called underrated and I agree with that assessment. He and Monk were the perfect musical match.
The CD ends with 'Think of One' and 'Straight, No Chaser' having a Monterey Jazz Festival house band added, and the arrangements and performances are nowhere close in quality to Monk's excellent large group collaborations with Hall Overton. Trumpeter Bobby Bryant takes extended solos on both charts and his improv doesn't fit Monk's chord changes; he also plays with a raucous, overly strident tone, sounding as though his own agenda is more important than the players around him.

If listeners can focus on the quartet, overlook the larger group and sub par sound, this CD is worth getting, especially at low price. No one else is anything like Monk and as far as I'm concerned there can't be enough of his recordings. What a great artist.

THERE IS NO GETTING AROUND IT!!! Thelonious Monk is one of the greatest geniuses that jazz has ever experienced. There is NO expressions of "loving jazz" without loving the creative angular melodic obtusivenesses of Thelonious Monk's compositions. It's through his music that we determine the depth of the listener's understanding of genuineness of jazz music. Seriously, are you hip...or really not? If you are hip as you think you are, then load-down THIS into yourself!!!!