Thelonious Monk Stockholm "Live"

Thelonious Monk | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 2002)
• Original Release Date: August 26, 2002
• Number of Discs: 2
• ASIN: B00006SCFK
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,957 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Jackie-ing

2. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You

3. Crepuscule with Nellie

4. Ba-Lu Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are

5. Rhythm-a-ning

6. Epistrophy

7. Just a Gigolo

8. Monk's Dream Bonus Track

Disc: 2

1. Well You Needn't

2. Round Midnight

3. Bemsha Swing

4. Blue Monk

5. Epistrophy

6. Body and Soul

7. Hot Licks on Drums (Bonus Track)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Thelonious Sphere Monk

(October 10, 1917-February 17, 1982)

"You know, anybody can play a composition and use far-out chords and make it sound wrong. It’s making it sound right that’s not easy." Thelonious Monk, 1961

With the arrival of Thelonious Sphere Monk, modern music–let alone modern culture--simply hasn’t been the same. Recognized as one of the most inventive pianists of any musical genre, Monk achieved a startlingly original sound that even his most devoted followers have been unable to successfully imitate. His musical vision was both ahead of its time and deeply rooted in tradition, spanning the entire history of the music from the "stride" masters of James P. Johnson and Willie "the Lion" Smith to the tonal freedom and kinetics of the "avant garde." And he shares with Edward "Duke" Ellington the distinction of being one of the century’s greatest American composers. At the same time, his commitment to originality in all aspects of life–in fashion, in his creative use of language and economy of words, in his biting humor, even in the way he danced away from the piano–has led fans and detractors alike to call him "eccentric," "mad" or even "taciturn." Consequently, Monk has become ! perhaps the most talked about and least understood artist in the history of jazz.

Born on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Thelonious was only three when his parents and his two siblings, Marion and Thomas, moved to New York City. Unlike other Southern migrants who headed straight to Harlem, the Monks settled on West 63rd Street in the "San Juan Hill" neighborhood of Manhattan, near the Hudson River. His father, Thelonious, Sr., remained with the family for a few years, but health considerations forced him to return to North Carolina. During his stay, however, he often played the harmonica, Jew’s harp," and a little piano–all of which probably influenced his son’s unyielding musical interests. Young Monk turned out to be a musical prodigy in addition to an outstanding student and a fine athlete. He studied the trumpet briefly but began exploring the piano at age five. He was about twelve when Marion’s piano teacher took Thelonious on as a student. By his early teens, he was playing rent parties, sitting in on organ at Union Baptist Church! a few doors from his house, and was reputed to have won several "amateur hour" competitions at the Apollo Theater. First launched in 1933, the Lafayette Theater and the Harlem Opera House also sponsored amateur hours and it is possible that Monk participated in these as well.

Admitted to Peter Stuyvesant, one of the city’s best high schools, Monk excelled academically but an unspoken color bar kept him from joining the school band. By his sophomore year, he dropped out to pursue music and around 1935 took a job as a pianist for a traveling evangelist and faith healer. Returning after two years, he formed his own quartet and played local bars and small clubs until the spring of 1941, when drummer Kenny Clarke hired him as the house pianist at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem.

Minton’s, legend has it, was where the "bebop revolution" began. The after-hours jam sessions at Minton’s, along with similar musical gatherings at Monroe’s Uptown House, Dan Wall’s Chili Shack, among others, attracted a new generation of musicians brimming with fresh ideas about harmony and rhythm–notably Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach, Tadd Dameron, and Monk’s close friend and fellow pianist, Bud Powell. Monk’s harmonic innovations proved fundamental to the development of modern jazz in this period. Anointed by some critics as the "High Priest of Bebop," several of his compositions ("52nd Street Theme," "Round Midnight," "Epistrophy" [co-written with Kenny Clarke and originally titled "Fly Right" and then "Iambic Pentameter"], "I Mean You") were favorites among his contemporaries.

Yet, as much as Monk helped usher in the bebop revolution

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars monk, rouse, ore, dunlop, live, stockholm '61---wouldn't you love to hear it?, February 2, 2010

By 

dave young (st. paul, mn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thelonious Monk Stockholm "Live" (Audio CD)

This 2-disc set was originally released (for the most part) on 2 LP's in '87 by Dragon Records of Stockholm. The LP's garnered some nice critical notice and then went missing from the Dragon catalog soon thereafter. If it's ever showed up there again then I've missed it. The "for the most part" portions on the LP's exclude the two bonus cuts listed on the Thelonious Records version which Amazon lists here, the final cut per disc. The originally issued music has appeared on occasion on CD from other labels, purportedly licensed by Dragon. I've seen the Japanese DIW and the Parisian Secret versions; Lord references an Italian release on Duke. The most recent incarnation seems to have been the one Amazon shows, this one released on Thelonious Records which I believe Monk's son Toot (T. Monk, no mean musician himself) to have headed up. I don't recall if they did simultaneous LP's. All of the releases from that label also seem to have gone off into limbo. To quote Bill Murray from Ghostbusters, "What a crime!"

Enough for discography. This is essential Monk for any collector and a great mid-career example for someone who doesn't need to have it all. Not that I understand that kind of thinking but to each their own. It comes chronologically from the same era as the last Riverside recordings with Rouse, from France and Italy if memory serves. I can't say enough for the music. Monk is typically lucid and abstract at once, creating meteoric showers of bright crystalline piano. Hard to believe now that a listening audience and the critics had to catch up to him, everything he plays here sounds absolutely right. He's a marvel but you already knew that. Charlie Rouse is solidly in Monk's pocket-lovely, light tone to the fore and playing in unison with Monk as if they're one voice. When Monk does comp behind the tenorist's solos there's a second show to consider as he's creating counterpoint and complement on the fly. Ore and Dunlop drive the band relentlessly, Monk urging them on.

Hopefully Amazon will get off the stick someday and open up its catalog to let the DIW and Secret releases see the light of day and hopefully tease some used copies out of hiding and onto the open market. I'm not holding my breath but it could happen. Let's hope too that Thelonious can get its version back up and running. In the meantime, scratch and claw to track down this version. It's worth the hunt.