Clark Terry with Thelonious Monk

Cover of the album being discussed (from the Amazon.com Web page for MP3 download)

The Riverside album In Orbit is distinguished by the fact that it is the only album of the label on which pianist Thelonious Monk appears as a sideman. In May of 1958, Trumpeter Clark Terry led a quartet, whose other members were Sam Jones on bass and drummer Philly Joe Jones, for two days of recording sessions. Mind you, Monk’s “secondary status” did not prevent the tracks from being included in The Complete Riverside Recordings anthology of his albums. Indeed, the accompanying Riverside booklet does not even credit Terry as the leader for those ten tracks (one of which, “Flugelin’ the Blues,” was not included on the original LP release)! To be fair, however, he is consistently cited as the composer for six of the tracks, the last of which is “Flugelin’ the Blues.”

This year, however, In Orbit was remastered. Amazon.com now has a Web page for downloading the nine tracks of the original release in this updated format. (Since it is the original release, “Flugelin’ the Blues” is not included.) The remastering was prepared by Craft Records as the latest addition to its Original Jazz Classic series. Nevertheless, many readers probably know by now that I do not obsess over fidelity. When I am listening to a jazz quartet, all that matters is that I can pay attention to all four performers. Thus, when Riverside reissued these tracks on CD for its Monk anthology, I just wanted to keep track of who was doing what as the performance progressed.

As a result, I cannot comment on the merits of the remastering process. More important is that the aforementioned Web site provides yet another opportunity for listeners to appreciate the inventiveness in “modern jazz” half a century ago. To be fair, I am willing to admit that I have a bit of an obsession for Monk; but that is because I was fortunate enough to listen to him in performance at the Village Vanguard during my student days. (Terry was not really on my radar in those days. I now regret that, but I have enough recordings to compensate!)

More importantly, I am glad to see that The Complete Riverside Recordings is still in circulation with a Web page that even includes an MP3 option for all fifteen CDs!