Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane

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Larry Appelbaum, the recording lab supervisor at the Library of Congress, came across this tape by accident while transferring the library’s tape archive to digital. What a find. Forget the Five Spot recording that sounds like it was recorded inside of a tunnel from the far end. The sound here is wonderfully present and contemporary. More importantly, this band — which also included drummer Shadow Wilson and bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik — had it right on November 29, 1957, at Carnegie Hall. The John Coltrane on this date is far more assured than he had been four months earlier on the Five Spot date and on the initial Prestige side Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane. He’d been with Monk for four months and had absorbed his complex, multivalent musical system completely. It’s clear from the opening track, “Monk’s Mood,” where the pair play in duet, that Coltrane is confident and moving into his own. Monk feels that confidence with his nearly Baroque entrance on the tune. This is a hard-swinging band with two front-line players who know how to get the best from one another. Coltrane knows the music inside out and his solos reflect an early version of his sheets of sound methodology. Check the joyous “Crepuscule with Nellie” for the hard evidence. Coltrane’s cue and Monk’s arpeggios are wondrous, swinging, and full of fire and joy. Trane’s fills on the melody that leads into his solo are simply revelatory, and the solo itself is brilliant. Or check Wilson’s cymbal work on “Nutty” before the band kicks it in full force.
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  • MusicMagic77

    LP Label A -- LP Label B -- Rear Cover

    25 Dec 2011 Reply

  • garoto36

    I agree with the labeling proposed by @bringtheky

    17 Feb 2011 Reply

  • Konkapa

    @BringtheKY: In 1957 Trane was already respectable in jazz because of his performances with Miles and their albums for Prestige label. Another good example (alongside Carnegie Hall poster) of his status is the name of Monk's album also from 1957: Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane. It shows that he wasnt just an ordinary sideman in the quartet.

    29 Sep 2010 Reply

  • I_LOVE_DONUTS

    Some of the elements on this album are obvious studio added (like the applause). But the work of Grand mixer DXT (R.I.P.), or like some like to call "the herbie hancock's rock it dj", on recovering these recordings was beautiful.

    22 Sep 2010 Reply

  • shahidi124

    What an awful lineup...

    1 May 2010 Reply

  • themshow118

    @BringtheKY: as a matter of fact, this concert actually was billed as "Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane". http://www.thrdgll.net/internal/monkshow.gif If its good enough for Carnegie Hall, then its good enough for me. More importantly though, can we just look at who else played that night? Like, seriously? For $3.95???

    5 Apr 2010 Reply

  • BringtheKY

    I personally think this stuff should be just labeled "Thelonious Monk" or perhaps "Thelonious Monk Quartet," as although Coltrane is a legend now, Coltrane was a sideman, just a part of Monk's quartet, this wasn't a double-billing.

    3 Mar 2010 Reply

  • SirAlecHendrix

    Monk & Trane—now connected to the brandnew group ➤ Round Midnight

    26 Sep 2008 Reply

  • Cacophony89

    Fooly & cooly...

    28 Aug 2008 Reply

  • harrykicksass

    why is this tagged in emo

    8 Nov 2007 Reply

  • shoyland

    That dissonant repetitive part of Monk's solo on Blue Monk gets me every time.

    15 Aug 2006 Reply

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