Thelonious Monk - 'Monk's Dream'

(The above artwork is by the artist Koen Olie a.k.a. Art58Koen, check out his blog to your right)

 

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, my older brother and I were listening to Thelonious Monk, when our mother walked into the room. The conversation went like this:
Mom: “What is this?”

Me: “It’s Thelonious Monk”

Mom: “Where did he learn to play the piano...the crazy house?”

Brother: “It’s good, give it a chance.”

Mom: “Sounds like Merde (shit in French).”

(Mom was born in Marseille, France, grew up in Québec City, Canada, and she always swore in French, never English.)
Me: “He has a unique style of playing”
Mom: “Is this that kind of music, you have to smoke pot, before you listen to it?”
Brother: “No, but it couldn’t hurt.”
With that, mom gave my brother a light(ish) slap to the back of his head, and went back to the kitchen mumbling, “Enfants, putain de merde!” (Children, for fuck’s sake), to herself.  As an aside: Smacking the back of my brother’s head was a time honored tradition in our family.  In fairness, he was, and even now in his early 80s, is the biggest smart ass you ever met.  Whenever my mother or father smacked the back of his head, he’d give me the same look that Oliver Hardy used when he broke the fourth wall, which always made me laugh.

Back to Monk

If I could only listen to ten albums for the rest of my life, three or four of them would be by Thelonious Monk, and today's freeload, 'Monk's Dream' would most certainly be one of them. There's just something so satisfying and entertaining about it (as is most Monk).

Monk's Dream was Thelonious' first release on the Columbia Records label, produced by Teo Macero, it was recorded over 4 days in the autumn of 1962 and issued a year later.  Thelonious' sidemen on this had been with him for two years: tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse (who worked with Monk from 1959 to 1970), bassist John Ore, and drummer Frankie Dunlop.  The tight dimensions that these four shared has rarely been equaled in any genre.  Columbia's resources allowed Monk to be promoted more widely than earlier in his career.  Monk's Dream would become the best-selling LP in his lifetime.

This is Monk in full swing, kids!

Our freeload today, is the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's, Original Master Recording, from their 'Ultradisc UHR series', remastered SACD, reissue, from 2019.  The sound is outstanding (24-bit/192kHz), and the separation of the instruments is sublime.

To get a link to Monk's Dream, tell us what your favorite swear word or phrase is.