Never Enough Thelonious Monk!

Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of DL Media, Inc.)

It has been a little over a year since I last invoked my favorite precept delivered by the conductor Leonard Slatkin, “You can never conduct enough Haydn or Schubert.” My own variation on that “theme” is that, where my own collection of recordings is concerned, there is no such thing as too much Thelonious Monk. As a result, I was delighted that this month began with the release of a new Monk album. The title suggests that it is the first of more to come: Monk Live in Paris, 1967, Volume One.

My only disappointment is that there are only four tracks of music amounting to a little more than half an hour. However, the album is the first “official” release from the Thelonious Monk Estate, which is curated by Monk’s granddaughter, Sierre Barbara Monk. She has contributed a paragraph to the album jacket, followed by a Q&A exchange with Monk’s son, T. S. Monk. Personally, however, I am more interested in the music, whose four tracks are “Epistrophy,” Evidence,” “Ruby My Dear,” and “We See.”

Monk, of course, is at the piano for all of those tracks. Rhythm is provided by Larry Gales with Ben Riley on drums. Tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse is the only other musician to contribute to all of the tracks. The other performers are Phil Woods on alto saxophone, another tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, Ray Copeland on trumpet, and trombonist Jimmy Cleveland.

From a personal perspective, 1967 is about half a decade before I first went to a Monk performance. If my memory is not too faded, I believe I saw him at the Village Vanguard, after which I made as many return visits as my schedule would allow. (That schedule was based on trips I would make from Cambridge, Massachusetts!) I listened to everything Monk did with silent respect and never had the nerve to try to speak to him. As far as I was concerned, listening to the music was all that mattered; and that is exactly the way in which I have now approached this first Live in Paris release.

Those familiar with the Monk repertoire will know that all of the tracks on this album are familiar. However, repetition seldom rears its head in the performance of jazz. While all four of the tunes themselves are familiar to me, there was still much for me to absorb in the diversity of solo takes across all of the tracks. I am sure that I shall be making several return visits to this new album while waiting for “Volume Two” to appear!