Name Your Favorite Thelonious Monk Album. Please.

seriously diggin' criss cross right now.

also, check out Time magazine from 1964...wow, what a nice cover!

 

"Brilliant Corners" from '56.

I love hearing Max Roach wail on the tympany on 'Bemsha Swing.'

BTW, my 1986 JVC Japan CD of this album is one of the best sounding CDs in my collection.

 

yeah, that's a great album! if you can, could you post a pic of that cd?

 

Genius Of Modern Music Vol. 1 & 2.

Love my Blue Note LP reissues from 1984.

 

Is that the digitally mastered one cut using Direct Metal Mastering?

 

Spoken like a true Hoffmanite

My Favourite is-

Brilliant Corners

Very dynamic on the 45 rpm series and Mono to boot!

 

I "fourth" Brilliant Corners; one of my favorite albums ever.

 

Monk's Music!

 

As much as I love Brilliant Corners, it's gotta be Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers With Thelonious Monk. Hearing those idiosyncratic Monk classics supercharded by Blakey and the rest of his band is thrilling.

 

with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall !

 

Live at The It Club 1964 ("complete" Legacy version, reissued on CD in 1998).

 

If I had to pick "best" albums, I'd choose "Monk's Music" or "Brilliant Corners," but my favorite?

The one you got on now, "Criss Cross!"

On the other hand, if I had to pick my favorite Monk performance, it would be the version of "Straight, No Chaser" on "Five by Monk by Five" with Thad Jones on cornet.

L.

 

Steve -- I'll profess ignorance and will have to check that one out. But is "supporting the other players" the optimal criterion for "best album" from an iconoclast like Monk (especially on his albums as a leader)?

 

Another vote for this one. Love the 45 too.

 

Brilliant Corners for me as well.

 

Wow, this is hard!

I am a huge Monk fan.

Monk's Dream - Great sound and Charlie really shines.
Genius of Modern Music - both volumes.
5 by 5 - I love the vintage sound on my vinyl copy.
Discovery - The sound stinks, it was originally done at the wrong speed. In Walked Bud is classic.

Peace. Robert

 

Another vote for "Brilliant Corners."

 

Wynton Marsalis' version of Monk's "Think of One" is genius.

 

It's a toss up between 5 By Monk By 5 and Monk's Music

 

I have to second whoever said "With Coltrane at Carnegie Hall". I just listen to it a couple of days ago, and it gets better every time.

Bobby

 

Yes.

 

If I had to pick one....Monk's Music.

Runners Up would be

5 x Monk x 5
Brilliant Corners
Thelonious Monk Trio (Prestige)
Genius of Modern Music 1 & 2 (Blue Note)

 

great album, love the flugelhorn, though i think maybe picking a non-monk monk album as your favorite is kind of a round about way of saying you don't dig monk too much, eh?

monk is monk. a good leader has a musical vision and gets the other musicians to participate in realizing that vision, which monk rarely seemed to have any problem doing. any jazz musician who wanted the standard comping and sound had a lot of other pianists to choose from. monk apparently did this album as a favor to clark terry, and for less than his normal rate of payment.