1. April in Paris
2. (I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance (With
You) (take 7)
3. Functional (take 2)
4. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
5. I Should Care (take 3)
6. 'Round Midnight (take 7)
7. All Alone
8. Monk's Mood (false start)
9. Monk's Mood
10. (I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance (With
You) (take 5)
11. Functional (take 1)
12. I Should Care (take 1)
13. I Should Care (take 2)
Thelonious Monk - Piano
John Coltrane - Tenor Sax (track 9)
Wilbur Ware - Bass (track 9)
This CD is particularly interesting
for two reasons. Recorded in April 1957, it
was Thelonious Monk's first album of predominantly
solo piano music (although he had included
one unaccompanied track on each of his first
three Riverside albums). And one track (Monk's
Mood) includes John Coltrane, recording
with Monk for the first time. There has been
great excitement recently over the discovery
of some live recordings of Monk and Coltrane
in concert at Carnegie Hall in November the
same year. But this is one of only a few studio
recordings that Monk and Trane made for the
Riverside label during the few months they
worked together.
Despite the excitement over
the newly-discovered concert recordings, the
version of Monk's Mood here is fairly
unexciting, because Coltrane is not particularly
eloquent. The album is actually more interesting
because you can savour Thelonious alone at
the piano, which is like going on a mystery
tour with a driver who is uncertain of where
he's going. These recordings have an exploratory
feel which typifies one of the best things
about jazz: "the sound of surprise". Monk
appears almost as surprised as the listener
as he picks his way carefully over the keyboard.
He turns chance discoveries into themes for
improvisation, creating a mood which producer
Orrin Keepnews describes in his sleeve-notes
as "a quality of thinking-out-loud". And,
like Sonny Rollins, he seems to delight in
taking an unlikely tune for jazz improvisation
like All Alone and seeing what happens.
The album shows that Monk's
music was rooted not only in the blues but
also in a long tradition of piano-playing
which included the boogie-woogie and stride
idioms (Orrin Keepnews quotes him as saying
at one point: "I sound like James P. Johnson").
The blues and other "traditional" influences
can be clearly heard in the two versions of
Functional. Monk's playing is also
distinguished by his obsession with discovering
new sounds and chords, which has been characterised
as trying to play the cracks between the notes
on the piano keyboard. This opened up a whole
new world of sound, turning discords into
an integral part of his individual style.
It is fascinating to hear him exploring a
jazz standard like I Should Care and
finding new things in it.
As the album title says,
this really is Thelonious Himself.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Riverside
0888072305106
