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430 of 441 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The monk and the space cadet, September 27, 2005
With so many things going wrong in the world, it's nice to see one important thing going right-- a certain Mr. Applebaum stumbles onto the recordings at the Library of Congress in January, a crack team spends the better part of the year restoring and remastering, and Blue Note and Thelonious Records put out the CD in September. The music on the CD is astonishing, and the quality of the recording is pristine beyond anyone's expectations. You could not cook up a sweeter story: for almost 50 years, we've heard the complaints that Monk and Coltrane's 5-month partnership was criminally underrecorded due to "non-musical conflicts" - the five glorious tracks put out by Riverside, and some pitifully recorded sets from the Five Spot Cafe were all that came out of it. Such a lost opportunity, particularly for Coltrane fans, because it was well-known (though not well-documented) that the saxophonist--his style, his musical conception--became totally liberated by the challenge of playing Monk's compositions with Monk.
This is the fabled document that everyone was desperate to hear, and it seems so improbable that it should appear so suddenly, so without incident, like any common reissue, that the built-up anticipation may at first occlude the actual material on the disc. But listen twice, and then three times, and then more...
You will hear John Coltrane surging forth, taking a quantum leap from the shaky but determined voice of Miles Davis' early quintet to the astonishing technique that would lead him into "Giant Steps", into his next work with Miles, and into the 1960s, where--though the charm of many of those recordings has worn off a bit for me--he became a prophet for so many musicians, and not just saxophone players. I'm not sure if it's Monk the writer, or Monk the player, or both, that enabled Coltrane to break free. But whatever the catalyst, Trane gets plenty of space and freedom on these tracks to completely lose his mind and go into the stream-of-consciousness solos that immortalized him. The same kind of ferocity that we heard on "Trinkle Tinkle" from that Riverside album is displayed here on the up-tempo tracks. As for the ballads, "Crepuscule with Nellie" has rarely sounded better, and an extended "Monk's Mood" achieves an even more sublime strangeness than we are accustomed to from Monk.
Ah, but half a century later, Monk can still surprise. He must certainly have been aware of how quickly and dramatically his disciple was growing, and he elevated his game appropriately. This is a Monk that we are not so familiar with... it's not his best piano performance, but it definitely stands out now and augments the rest of his output. He doesn't go off the map, but he seems trickier, more freewheeling in his solos, more deliberate in his rhythm work behind Coltrane. Both men are obviously in a state of exuberant transition. Gratitude and appreciation are the only proper responses.
As a side note, these two sets were recorded at Carnegie Hall on November 29th, 1957 as part of a benefit for something called the Morningside Community Center. Also on the bill? Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra, Ray Charles, and Sonny Rollins. Has Carnegie Hall ever seen a better night??
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283 of 292 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Putting aside historical value, it's a great performance., September 28, 2005
Recently it seems stunning jazz recordings have been unearthed every few months-- this piece, Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane from Carnegie Hall on November 29, 1957, is another such piece.
A bit of historical context for the those unaware-- in 1957, Coltrane was thrown out of Miles Davis' band for heroin use. He managed to kick his habit and ended up joining Thelonious Monk for study and an extended residency at the Five Spot, then a club in Manhattan. Listeners testify that Trane was pretty out of place at the beginning, but that by the end of their time there (several months, several nights a week), Trane was on fire, pushing himself and the leader. These shows were sadly totally undocumented, the only evidence of the two of them working together (prior to this release) was a brief studio session (three tunes, if I recall) from 1957 and a low fidelity recording from 1958 where Coltrane sat in with Monk's band. In late November of 1957, towards the end of his residency at the Five Spot, Monk was invited to perform at an all-star benefit fundraiser at Carnegie Hall. This performance was recorded by something called the Voice of America and recently unearthed in the Library of Congress archives by recording lab supervisor Larry Appelbaum and prepared for release by producer Michael Cuscuna (famous for his restorative work on Blue Note, Impulse! and his own Mosaic label) and Monk's son, drummer T.S. Monk.
Monk's performance consisted of two brief sets (each around 25 minutes, although the second one cuts off early) with his working quartet from the Five Spot gig-- the leader on piano, Coltrane on tenor sax, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass and Shadow Wilson on drums. It is obvious to any listener that this group had been playing together for quite a while, given the near-psychic level of interaction between the group. As a rule, Monk introduces the themes and the rest of the band joins in-- it seems Monk was viewing his performances as continual by this point as there is no pause between pieces.
The first set begins with a meditative solo piano on "Monk's Mood" that eventually evolves into a duet with Trane on an almost bleak sax as the leader switches to an accompaniment, responding to Coltrane's performance. Coltrane switches to the theme and the rest of the band joins. The remainder of the set finds the quartet in full flight, mostly meditative and tight-- particular highlights include the stunning "Crepuscule with Nellie" (performed without any solo space), Monk's unpredictable nonlinear theme variations solo on "Nutty" and downright stunning cymbal work from Wilson on "Epistrophy" (curiously enough, he doesn't repeat this stunning pattern on the second set).
The second set has that late show feel to it-- it's quite a bit looser, with the band stretching out and feels less arranged, providing a nice contrast to the first set. Trane in particular is on fire and exploratory, his soloing on "Sweet and Lovely" (the only standard on the set) takes off when Monk drops out and Abdul-Malik and Wilson move to double time, but as fierce as he is here, he really cuts loose on "Blue Monk", exploring the piece and pushing it to its limits, including what sounds as a reach towards the sort of free playing he'd do a decade later. Monk seems equally inspired by Trane on "Blue Monk", his own soloing is exciting and equally fiery. It's just a pity that "Epistrophy" cuts off early and we don't get the full set.
A concern with any "found recording" is always going to be sound-- the '58 Five Spot show sounds horrible, this one is a revelation. Professionally recorded, it is crisp, clean, well balanced, with good bass and even response, further enhancing its value. The liner notes include several essays providing historical context, notes on the performance (both individual and in general) and on the finding of these recordings that make for an interesting read (and provide great source material for background information for reviews....).
Bottom line-- this is a great find, a spectacular show, and it sounds great. Jazz fans will probably already have earmarked this for purchase, more casual listeners may find this equally engaging, it's quite a show. Highly recommended.
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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy This Album, October 16, 2005
WOW! This album is everything they are saying and then some. Consider: Monk is playing a Carnegie Hall grand piano. Repeat that phrase to yourself in capital letters, with six exclamation points at the end. It matters. You never heard him sound so fantastic. You realize that the pianos you've heard him record on before are OK instruments, in tune and so on, but this is a PIANO. And he sounds, well, grand. And you can hear him loving sounding grand. Monk is magnificent here. He begins the first tune, "Monk's Mood," solo, sounding like God. And then Coltrane comes in--and he sounds like God too. And why not? It's that glorious year, 1957, the year of Lush Life; Trane is suddenly Trane, and he knows it. You can hear that he knows it. He's stretching and bending like a gymnast; he can do anything he wants to do. Six months earlier, that was not the case. BUT ALSO: his tone is gorgeous. Later, in the famous quartet, his sound changes, becomes harder, steelier, more incisive, a little "uglier." I use that adjective advisedly. But in 1957, there's still Lester in his sound. Compared to most other players of the time (except for Don Byas and all Don Byas-ites), his tone sound pretty stripped down, but compared to later Trane he still sounds fat, and still employs vibrato (though lightly and shallowly). This is what I like about Trane in 1957; it's what makes Lush Life such a great album: the tone. Tone, tone, tone; Ben Webster taught us it's all about tone, even if what you play is stupid (as Webster sometimes was, when he was drunk). Trane was always absolutely conscious of the implications of tone, which is why he changed later. He learned from Bird how to strip it down, cut out the fat, which is also to cut out a certain kind of sonic richness, in the interest of something else. Well, here, he's still cooking with duck fat. He sounds absolutely amazing.
And then there's the room. You can hear Carnegie Hall in the music, that huge acoustically beautiful space all around these cats. The room sounds like God too. Whoever the Voice of America engineer who rigged the session was (nobody seems to know), he nailed it. You can hear everything, and everything sounds just right. When Shadow Wilson and Ahmed Abdul-Malik follow Trane into the tune, by god THEY sound like God.
So: you gotta stop whatever you're doing, hop in your car and get thee to a place of musical commerce! I'm telling you, your soul needs this. It is The Real Deal. Just when we didn't think there would ever again be any more, here it is.
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