THELONIOUS MONK
Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington
Riverside
Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington
was designed to get people who thought of Monk and his music
as ‘difficult’ and ‘weird’ (and
there were already plenty of them in 1955), to give him
a listen from a different perspective. Many years and recordings
later, we are perhaps more used to listening to and thinking
of Monk as a pianist of considerable talent, although I
would argue that there are still far too many who consider
him to be a somewhat limited pianist. This 24-bit remastered
reissue of a unique and stunning album from the Monk discography
should go a long way towards fixing that perception.
Monk seems very relaxed and affable at the
keyboard here, swinging fiercely and demonstrating an encyclopedic
knowledge of jazz piano styles. Accompanied by bassist Oscar
Pettiford and drummer Kenny Clarke, he moves with ease through
Ellington’s compositions. His work is spare, devoid
of unnecessary ornamentation, but there are flashes of technical
ebullience and the typical Monk humor. While he’s
very lyrical on most of this album, he does find some harmonically
interesting ways of dressing up some of the familiar compositions—two
examples being “Mood Indigo” and “Caravan.”
Keepnews and his partner, Bill Grauer, wanted
to get people to hear Monk as a pianist and as a jazz musician
whose place in the long line of jazz history was clear from
listening to him play. They felt that, in order to do this,
it would be best to present him, initially, in a trio setting,
with no horns and no original compositions. Thelonious
Monk Plays Duke Ellington and its followup, The
Unique Thelonious Monk certainly gave Keepnews valuable
experience in working and dealing with a musician as unique
as Monk, and by the time Brilliant Corners, Monk’s
third Riverside release, was recorded, the relationship
(which proved to be a long one) was already on solid ground.
No period in Monk’s recorded history
was more amazing and showed greater development than his
time with Riverside. By comparison, his work for Blue Note
is a mere warm-up, and his Columbia years, while often rewarding,
have the feel of an established musician honing his work
to obtain the best possible performances to bequeath to
future generations. Thelonious Monk Play Duke Ellington,
then, stands as one of Monk’s (admittedly many) best
recordings, and its latest incarnation in the Keepnews Collection
ensures that it will continue to be heard by an avid and
interested audience in the digital age.
