Thelonious Monk: Mønk

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Thelonious Monk (p)
John Ore (b)
Frankie Dunlop (perc)
Charlie Rouse (ts)

Label:

Gearbox

October/2018

Catalogue Number:

GB1541CD

RecordDate:

5 March 1963

Here's a 42-minute concert set you've never heard before, unless you're a collector circulating Monk bootlegs. One of at least five recordings from his second European tour, done shortly after taping most of the Columbia album Monk's Dream, it consists of a fairly average programme (repeated on some other concerts of the same tour), namely three originals and two standards, including an unaccompanied piano solo on ‘Body And Soul’. Well recorded, presumably either for radio (but, if so, not broadcast?) or from the Copenhagen venue's P.A. system, it is typical rather than sensational. Monk of course plays well with constant invention, whereas Rouse quickly gets locked into his personal clichés and, for all that Ore and Dunlop work well together, their individual solo spots are not exactly riveting. The linguistic joke of the album title might have made more sense if NH∅P had played with Monk rather than Bud Powell but, if you want a reliable sample of this quartet at work, you could certainly do worse than try this.

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