MONK & COLTRANE:
A legendary partnership comes into sharper focus with the release of
The Complete Riverside Recordings and At Carnegie Hall

by Marshall Bowden

Complete Riverside Recordings	At Carnegie Hall

During the twelve months of 1957, one of jazz music’s brightest stars was coming into his own, while a veteran of the scene who had helped bring forth bebop finally began to receive the attention he deserved. The rising star was saxophonist John Coltrane, who became one of the music’s biggest and most mythical names. The veteran was Thelonious Monk, who had been house pianist at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem and played with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, and other creators of the bebop style.

For John Coltrane, 1957 was a momentous year. Having worked with Miles Davis’ first quintet, he found himself at something of a crossroads. He quit the heroin habit that had plagued him during his stint with Miles, and he had a spiritual awakening that provided a roadmap for much of the rest of his career. "During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life,” he later said. “At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music.”

Thelonious Monk was also having an interesting year. He had signed with Riverside Records in 1955, and this period of his career saw the release of such classic albums as Monk’s Music and Brilliant Corners, on which many of his best-known compositions were heard for the first time. ’57 also saw the restoration of Monk’s New York City cabaret card, which had been revoked in 1951 when he was arrested for narcotics possession. This allowed Monk to hire a band and take up residence at New York’s Five Spot Café from mid-July through late December of that year. Until recently, there were believed to be almost no recordings of this amazing collaboration. However, the past year has seen the release of two recordings featuring these two jazz giants working together. In 2005 Blue Note Records released Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane At Carnegie Hall, a recording of a November, 1957 concert. Recorded near the end of the group’s time together, it is something of a master class in modern jazz performance, with both Coltrane and Monk in excellent form. Now, mid-2006, Riverside Records (now owned by the Concord Music Group) has issued Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane: The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings. Both are important documents of one of the greatest ‘lost’ jazz combos in the history of modern jazz.

Monk’s unique harmonic structures pointed the way for Coltrane toward harmonic realms he had not previously been able to tap into. It opened windows for him, like the koan, or riddle (‘what is the sound of one hand clapping?’) that the Zen master throws at is student in order to challenge his or her perceptions. Most accounts of this period relate that Monk’s chords, and his ways of voicing those chords while backing another soloist, presented a challenge to Coltrane in the beginning. This was especially true when Monk would cease to play altogether, doing what was known as ‘strolling,’ a routine whereby Monk would stomp, twirl, and generally comport himself around the bandstand and, according to Five Spot co-owner Iggy Termini, sometimes into the club’s kitchen. Iggy’s brother and co-owner Joe would acknowledge, as Monk and Trane filled the club most every night, “Well, we’re in show business now.” But the challenge was well met, and quickly, because the July 1957 sessions that comprise the final three tracks of Disc 2 of the Complete Riverside Recordings were done not long after the quartet began its run at the Five Spot.

The first recording on the Riverside set features Monk playing in a trio with Coltrane and bassist Wilbur Ware. They perform the classic “Monk’s Mood,” one of Thelonious’ most introspective and noirish compositions. There is a false start, on which Monk apparently was dissatisfied with his introduction (producer Orrin Keepnews, in his excellent liner notes recalling the sessions, indicates that Monk’s apparent surprise that this take was being recorded, heard on the tape, was acting). On the second try he is apparently pleased, and the piece continues. When Coltrane and Ware enter, almost three minutes into the performance, Trane sounds ever so slightly tentative at first, but his confidence level grows quickly. It’s a very beautiful performance of one of Monk’s most beautiful compositions that Monk specifically wanted recorded for the otherwise-solo piano recording Monk Alone.

The center portion of this complete collection of Riverside recordings features the septet that was assembled for two sessions to record the Monk’s Music album. That group was comprised of Monk, Ray Copeland (trumpet), Gigi Grcye (alto sax), Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax), Ware on bass and drummer Art Blakey. Blakey is particularly well-suited to occupy the drum chair, with an understanding of rhythm every bit as complex and strong as Monk’s. Monk had formed a musical bond with Coltrane, and it is not hard to hear on these sessions that Coltrane was becoming an enthusiastic member of Monk’s ensemble. Hawkins’ presence here is also significant, as he was one of Monk’s early employers and mentors. Hawkins, Monk, and Coltrane represented musicians whose musical identities were forged in the white-hot kiln of one musical style, yet restlessly continued to develop and to look for new modes of expression. Hawkins was literally the first true modern jazz saxophonist, and he influenced countless musicians. In addition, he kept up with musical developments and was in turn influenced by the development of bebop and by post-bop musicians. Monk had been one of the architects of bebop, but he grew beyond it, eventually developing his own musical language as only a very few mythic jazz performers do (Ellington, Mingus, Miles, and in turn Coltrane himself). Coltrane came along at the end of the bebop era, and matured slowly in groups led by Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. After the extraordinary events of 1957, Coltrane managed to hook up with Miles again, becoming part of the legendary band that recorded one of the best-loved jazz recordings of all time, Kind of Blue. His continued movement forward with his famous quintet and beyond are, or course, well known.

 

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