Name Your Favorite Thelonious Monk Album. Please.

Brilliant Corners.

Something very exacting yet relaxed about that album....

 

I recommend to friends "Brilliant Corners" and "Monk's Music," and the live in Japan performance on Columbia.

 

I love the way Monk supports soloists. He's just unconventional. He doesn't always just drop out, he plays essential chord tones in punctuation of the improvisers IMO. Sparse, yes, but perfect. To each his own though

I'm definitely going to check out the Clark Terry album though!

 

Straight No Chaser, is fantastic! The SACD is really nice

 

+1.

I've never heard the SACD, but I "have love for" the regular CD. "Locomotive" is one of my theme songs.

 

I've had this for about a week. Great sound, and I wonder how much better it is than the redbook. Expanded version, similar to what Sony did for Mingus Ah Um.
No complaints here about what Monk did for his soloists. He gave them some of the best compositions in jazz history to interpret, and was a master of when to play and when not to.
Ever since the expanded version of Live at the It Club came out it's been my personal favorite.

 

Criss Cross is my favorite Monk album.
Runners up include Mulligan Meets Monk, Monk's Music, and Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington

 

A favorite of mine is The Complete Live at the Jazz Workshop

 

'Thelonious Himself' for its one of a kind beauty.
Also, 'Brilliant Corners' and 'Monk's Music' are definitely indispensable.

 

My favorite "late night" jazz listen is the Complete Columbia Solo Studio Recordings.

Brian

 

Do you believe his mental problems were affecting his playing style as early as '57?

 

Oh definately. I just don't really hear any perceptible change in his stylings until much later. But those talkbacks must be QUITE interesting, eh?

 

Agreed, mos def. However, also think 12/24/54, Prestige 7150.

 

Take it back, take it back. Take that thing right out of here.

 

That's my take on him as well -- I like how he drops in sparse, pointillistic accents behind a solo rather than comping, and I think this does support the soloist in the sense of providing different shades to what they're playing; it wouldn't work for everyone, but Monk and his sidemen knew what they were doing. The space and the angles in his music are part of what I find so appealing.

That said, me three on checking out that Clark Terry, and I have no fear of flugelhorn.

 

I agree! This especially applies to the classic quartets with Charlie Rouse on sax, who may not have been the all-time-greatest tenor man, but whose style was perfect for Monk's music.

Favorite lp? Monk Plays Ellington is definitely one of them.

 

Woah! Monk had emotional problems throughout his career, and they did worsen as he aged. But to say he was "literally going insane...(at least at the end)" is going too far. Van Gogh was a great artist, from start to finish, no matter what HIS emotional state was, and the same applies to Monk.

Did Picasso get into Cubism because HE was insane?

 

I must admit, I'm completely floored by this statement. So Monk had no idea what he was doing at the piano? When he composed music? It was all a mental illness? Please name one record where you think his metal illness is creating the music. Really, I cannot believe that a statement like this is going unchallenged on a music forum.

 

Monk's Music

 

Unchallenged? Hardly. See my post above. And with all due respect to our host, I decided to take another listen to Straight No Chaser as I write this. And of course, Monk is providing chordal backing throughout the entirety of Rouse's first solo. I love the way Monk behaves on this record. These snipes at Monk for his improper technique, his eccentric behavior and all the rest just erode the authority of the person making the statement and do absolutely nothing to tarnish the beauty of the music he composed and played.

 

Well, it's your forum, Mister H, so I guess we can fault you for "dicking around", and I'm familiar with Monk's outtakes, too. But the music on the master tapes is glorious, and created in spite of his emotional problems, not because of them.