MONK & COLTRANE
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The pieces recorded for Monk’s Music were, for the most part, already well-entrenched pieces of Monk’s repertoire. Monk wrote new arrangements for the septet, and one new composition: “Crepuscule With Nellie,” which he had to teach the band in the studio. Keepnews relates how circumstances the first day of recording resulted in almost no usable recordings, save for the thirteen-plus minute Gryce-composed “Blues For Tomorrow,” which Keepnews recorded after Monk had fallen asleep at the piano and left, ending the first day’s session. Naturally, that track wasn’t included on Monk’s Music, but it meant that the session wasn’t a total loss. The next day the group needed to cut enough material for the entire album, or else wait a considerable amount of time before the same personnel would all be available and studio time could be booked again. They succeeded, and Monk’s Music is thought to be among his best recordings (his period on Riverside being cited by many as the height of his recording career). An interesting piece is the album’s opener, "Abide With Me," a hymn composed by one William Henry Monk and arranged in a very straightforward fashion by Thelonious. It is a joke on two levels—the first being the composer’s name, and the other being the totally straight face with which Monk presents the material. Apparently he made the group (a horn ensemble only, with Copeland, Gryce, Hawkins, and Coltrane) play the piece twice, and both takes are presented here. Practical joke aside, the arrangement is well-performed by the able ensemble, and presents a very solid counterpoint to the music that follows. Perhaps what Monk was saying was, ‘throw out your preconceptions, derived from Western classical music, about what harmony is all about.’

The final three tracks, recorded at the July ’57 session, are the only studio recordings by the original Monk group that opened at the Five Spot that same month. Coltrane and Monk are joined by the amazing rhythm section of Ware and drummer Shadow Wilson, and one realizes that the right rhythm section was an all-important aspect of the success of this group. These recordings are the full-bodied efforts of a group that is so well conceived that nothing is out of place. Coltrane now sounds transformed, and is able to use Monk’s compositions as a jumping off point to another dimension, one which he would soon inhabit completely. The group performs three of Monk’s classic compositions, “Ruby My Dear,” “Nutty,” and “Trinkle Tinkle.” His playing has moved to a level above his craftsman-like playing with Davis just a year earlier. While one laments the fact that the group never cut more recordings in the studio, these three tracks truly rank among jazz treasures of the highest order.

If the Riverside sessions were the classes in which Monk, almost completely through playing rather than speaking or writing music down, handed down his harmonic vision to John Coltrane, then Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall is the graduation, complete with valedictorian speech by Coltrane. Whether this was the high point for this group or whether it was merely one of many possible pinnacles will never be known, as Coltrane would re-join Miles several weeks later. Bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, who had replaced Ware at the Five Spot since the July ’57 Riverside session, was in attendance at that concert, but otherwise the personnel is the same: Monk, Coltrane, and Wilson still behind the drums. The performances here were recorded as part of a charity benefit at Carnegie, an event that also featured Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker with Zoot Sims, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billie Holiday. So many paths crossing in so many different directions, some on the way up, others perhaps at the crossroads of their careers. Both the early show (8 o’clock) and late show (midnight) performances by Monk’s quartet are presented here. The first reprises the Monk/Coltrane duet on “Monk’s Mood, “ followed by performances of “Evidence,” “Crepuscule With Nellie,” “Nutty,” and “Epistrophy.” From the minute Coltrane begins to solo on “Evidence,” it is clear that he has arrived, at times playing two additional chord substitutions for every one demanded by the music. The famous ‘sheets of sound’ for which he was renowned in this next period of his career is fast developing by this time. The late set features performances of “By-Ya,” “Sweet and Lovely,” “Blue Monk,” and an incomplete recording of “Epistrophy.”

Complete Riverside Recordings and At Carnegie Hall provide a much clearer picture of the development of the relationship between Coltrane and Monk, and also allow listeners who were not able to be at the Five Spot during that extraordinary half year a chance to hear jazz history in the making.