Together with his penchant for natty headgear – which ranged from trilbies, flat caps and fedoras, to berets, conical Asian “coolie” hats and skullcaps – Thelonious Monk at all times minimize a particular and sartorially arresting determine. It was his music, although, that introduced him much more consideration and helped to write his title into the historical past books. Although he rose to fame within the bebop period through the mid-40s, stylistically, Monk ploughed a singular furrow that made him stand out from the gang. In melodic and harmonic phrases, he developed a singular vocabulary: one which consisted of angular melodies, typically outlined by massive intervallic leaps, jarring dissonances, and chromatic cluster chords; rhythmically, he mixed components from the jaunty stride piano fashion of the early jazz epoch with swing-era syncopation. A lot of this brilliance is explored within the Thelonious Monk Status recordings, made within the early 50s.
From his very first solo recordings – for Blue Word, within the late 40s – it was clear that Thelonious Monk was an thrilling new unique voice in jazz, one who stood aside from different musicians as he created his personal distinctive and really private universe. Monk’s music wasn’t with out its detractors, although, and his compositions have been typically misunderstood and even ridiculed. However Monk is not dismissed as an eccentric maverick – fairly, he’s revered as certainly one of jazz’s most revolutionary musicians and vital composers.
October 10, 2017, marked the centenary of Thelonious Monk’s delivery. To rejoice that momentous event, Craft Recordings issued a vinyl field set of 10” LPs that have been first issued by Bob Weinstock’s indie jazz label, Status, through the years 1952-54. The stylishly-packaged Full Status 10” LP Assortment consists of 5 full albums, Thelonious, Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows For LP, Thelonious Monk Quintet, Thelonious Monk Performs, and Sonny Rollins And Thelonious Monk, introduced of their unique early 50s 10” LP format.
Thelonious Monk’s first Status recording session
Status boss Bob Weinstock, who based the New York-based label in 1949, was intrigued by Monk when he heard him play with saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and introduced the pianist to the label on August 21, 1952, signing him to a three-year contract.
The primary Thelonious Monk Status session occurred two months later, on October 15, 1952, a couple of days following the pianist’s thirty fifth birthday, at studio boffin/engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack studio in New Jersey. Monk led a trio comprising Barbados-born, Brooklyn-raised bassist Gary Mapp (who had a day job as a policeman) and percussion powerhouse Artwork Blakey, then 33, who would go on to co-found The Jazz Messengers two years later. The trio recorded 4 cuts all as first takes, together with three Monk originals: “Monk’s Dream,” which was a brand-new music, plus “Little Rootie Tootie” and the Latin-inflected “Bye-Ya,” two tunes that Monk had written some years beforehand however by no means recorded earlier than. Rounding out the session was Monk’s studying of the usual “Sweet And Lovely.”
Monk returned to the studio on December 18, 1952, so as to add extra tracks to what would develop into his first 10” LP for Status, Thelonious. The session reunited him with Gary Mapp however changed Blakey with one other rising drum grasp, Max Roach. The trio recorded 4 extra sides, “Trinkle Tinkle,” the Caribbean-tinged “Bemsha Swing” and the ballad “Reflections,” plus a sardonic rendition of “These Foolish Things.” On its launch, the primary Thelonious Monk Status 10” (which was revamped in 1954 as a 12” LP known as Thelonious Monk Trio) didn’t thrill many of the critics, but it surely has gone on to be considered certainly one of Monk’s key basis stones.
Later periods: The Thelonious Monk Quintet takes flight
His second 10” LP for Status, Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows For LP, was recorded in New York Metropolis on Friday, November 13, 1953. Initially, the day lived as much as superstitious associations with dangerous luck: trumpeter Ray Copeland fell in poor health and had to get replaced by a French horn participant, Julius Watkins; then, to cap all of it, Monk and saxophonist Sonny Rollins have been concerned in a automobile accident on the way in which to the studio. Fortuitously, each have been left unscathed however have been an hour late for the session, the place they have been joined by a rhythm part comprised of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Willie Jones.
The quintet recorded three tracks collectively: the jaunty swingers “Let’s Call This” and “Think Of,” and, commemorating the ominous date of the recording session, “Friday The Thirteenth,” a very discordant piece constructed on a descending sequence of chords. It was a session that highlighted Monk and Rollins’ compatibility as collaborators, with the latter demonstrating how skillfully he might navigate the pianist’s doubtlessly difficult melodies and chord adjustments (Rollins was Monk’s favourite saxophonist).
Ray Copeland returned to the studio, alongside saxophonist Frank Foster, bassist Curly Russell and drummer Artwork Blakey, for the following Thelonious Monk Status studio session, in Might 1954, which produced 4 tracks – three Monk tunes (“We See,” “Locomotive” and “Hackensack”) and a startlingly radical remake of the usual “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” They have been launched as a ten” LP titled Thelonious Monk Quintet (later expanded to 6 cuts when it was reissued as a 12” LP).
Blakey was retained for Monk’s subsequent Status LP, the four-track Thelonious Monk Performs, whose centerpiece was one of many pianist’s most enduring and standard numbers, “Blue Monk.” One other Monk traditional, “Nutty,” was additionally a spotlight. The LP was rounded out with Monk’s personal “Work” and the jazz commonplace “Just A Gigolo,” a music beforehand recorded by Louis Armstrong, Fat Waller, and Artwork Tatum.
Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
The ultimate Thelonious Monk Status 10” was Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins. The music recorded for the album was initially scheduled as a Status session in Rollins’ title, as a way to showcase the younger saxophonist in a quartet setting (with bassist Tommy Potter and drummer Artwork Taylor in attendance). However when his pianist, Elmo Hope, acquired arrested for drug possession, Monk got here in to deputize; due to Monk’s stature and Rollins’ excessive regard for him, the pair shared the billing when the album was launched.
First launched in 1954, the album initially consisted of three tracks (later expanded when rebooted as a 12” LP), all of which have been requirements (“The Way You Look Tonight,” “I Want To Be Happy” and “More Than You Know”). The recordings confirmed how Monk might cleverly refashion different folks’s materials in his personal picture whereas retaining the spirits of the unique tunes. Sonny Rollins, who was simply 24 on the time, impresses with the melodic inventiveness of his improvisations.
The legacy of Thelonious Monk’s Status recordings
After his three-year tenure with Status, Monk moved on to take pleasure in lengthy and fruitful stints at first Riverside after which, within the early 60s, Columbia. However as The Full Status 10” LP Assortment demonstrates, Monk’s sides for Bob Weinstock’s firm represented vital early steps in his profession and cemented his place as an necessary and unique voice in jazz.
Over 60 years on from once they have been first recorded, the Thelonious Monk Status information sound as recent and vibrant as ever, which is due not simply to the timelessness of Monk’s music – which nonetheless sounds fiercely fashionable – but in addition to Joe Tarantino’s top-notch remastering. The Full Status 10” LP Assortment additionally replicates the paintings and look of the unique 10” LPs, proper right down to their sleeves and file labels. Erudite Monk historian, the esteemed Robin DG Kelley (whose 2009 ebook, Thelonious Monk: The Life And Occasions Of An American Unique, is considered the definitive biography of the pianist) has penned authoritative liner notes for the field set, which may also be accessible digitally in hi-res audio, in addition to the usual obtain format.
Store for Thelonious Monk’s music on vinyl or CD now.
