Thelonious Monk - 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses'

Every year (sometimes more often), we've come to expect new discoveries from the vaults by Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, and Sonny Rollins.  But in 2017, who knew there were hidden gems by Monk, and from a professionally recorded studio session, no less!

This session had never been released to the public before; the tapes were thought lost for all these decades.  Usually, when recovered sessions are heralded as "long-lost," a quick listening reveals why.  But the result in this case is a surprisingly terrific Monk album.

Any occasion for unreleased Thelonious Monk recordings is one for celebration.  The discovery of his excellent soundtrack sessions for Roger Vadim's film 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' from 1960, an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 18th century novel, happened by accident.  Producers Zev Feldman, François Le Xuan, and Frederic Thomas found these tapes while searching French saxophonist Barney Wilen's manager's archives in search of unreleased material. What they found were the original soundtrack and full sessions cut in New York during a single day in 1959 – the same fertile year that yielded the Monk's At Town Hall; 5 by Monk by 5, and Thelonious Alone in San Francisco.  Like these recordings, this soundtrack showcases Monk at the very top of his game.

In 1959, Monk was commissioned to compose and play the score for a Roger Vadim film, 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 18th century novel.  By the time of the recording date at Nola Penthouse Studio in Manhattan, he hadn't written anything new.  But after watching a print of the movie, he took several tunes from his catalog—"Rhythm-a-ning," "Crepuscule with Nellie," "Well You Needn't," "Pannonica," "Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are," "Light Blue," and "By and By", and set them to breezier paces or moodier cadences than usual.

For various reasons, including health issues and legal troubles, Monk had no time to travel or compose original music for the film.  For this session he brought along tunes from his repertoire – as was his customary practice throughout his career – and reinvented them for the film with his working quartet of saxophonist Charlie Rouse, drummer Art Taylor, and bassist Sam Jones, with the addition of Barney Wilen (who should be far better known to American jazz fans). The album is one of the few occasions in the pianist's discography where he employed two tenor players, the other being "Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk", with Harold Land alongside Rouse.

CDs includes the actual soundtrack music as used in sequence, but never released. "Rhythm-a-Ning" is followed by "Crepuscule with Nellie" (his wife was in the studio), "Six in One," and "Well You Needn't," all of which are sprightly and at times even hot. There are two solo takes of "Pannonica" also used, along with a quintet version.  It is notable to note that Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, Monk's friend and patron, was also present. "Ba-Lue-Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are" is followed by a brief "Light Blue" and the short gospel hymn "By and By," which makes its first-ever appearance here.

Disc two contains alternate takes, a pair of masters for a 45 rpm single, an edited version of "Well You Needn't," and the jewel: a 14-minute in-process recording of "Light Blue" complete with studio dialogue. It's a cousin to the making of "'Round Midnight" with Gerry Mulligan that showed up in the '80s: A one-of-a-kind revelatory document. This music was not only professionally recorded, but preserved with archival standards, making for an excellent fidelity reproduction.

CD1

1. Rhythm-A-Ning
2. Crepuscule With Nellie
3. Six In One
4. Well, You Needn't
5. Pannonica (Solo 1)
6. Pannonica (Solo 2)
7. Pannonica (Quartet)
8. Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are
9. Light Blue
10. By and By (We'll Understand It Better By And By)

CD2

1. Rhythm-A-Ning (Alternate)
2. Crepuscule With Nellie (Take 1)
3. Pannonica (45 rpm Master)
4. Light Blue (45 rpm Master)
5. Well, You Needn't (Unedited)
6. Light Blue (Making Of)

Recorded at Nola Penthouse Sound Studios, 111 W. 57th St., New York, N.Y., Monday, July 27, 1959.
Mastered from the original master tapes.

Musicians:
Thelonious Monk - Piano
Charlie Rouse - Tenor Saxophone
Barney Wilen - Tenor Saxophone on "1,2,8,11"
Sam Jones - Bass
Art Taylor - Drums

For the freeload, tell us about something you did that was dangerous.

Thelonious Monk - 'The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection'

“The piano ain’t got no wrong notes.” – Thelonious Monk

In 2017, in honor of his centennial birthday, Craft Recordings released this limited-edition box set that includes all five of the 10-inch vinyl LPs Monk recorded for Prestige Records from 1952 to 1954.  Jacket design and LP labels have all been faithfully reproduced, while the original recordings have been carefully restored and remastered.  A new booklet contains a slew of liner notes courtesy of Monk biographer Robin D. G. Kelley.

In 1952 when Monk secured a contract with Prestige, he was living in dark times.  He had been arrested in August 1951 for dope possession, and took the rap for his friend Bud Powell, which resulted in the revoking of his cabaret card, which also resulted in a lack of any potential income-generating gigs in New York City.  The Prestige recordings offered him the opportunity to reach wider critical and commercial acceptance.

The simply titled 'Thelonious' was his first release for the label. It was recorded in October and December 1952, produced by Ira Gitler and featured Monk accompanied by bassist Gary Mapp and drummers Art Blakey (in the first session) and Max Roach (in the second session)
 

Track list:

1. Little Rootie Tootie
2. Sweet And Lovely
3. Bye-Ya
4. Monk's Dream
5. Trinkle, Tinkle
6. These Foolish Things
7. Bemsha Swing
8. Reflections

'Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows for LP' is the second LP. Accompanying Monk are, Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone, Julius Watkins on French horn, Percy Heath on Bass, and Willie Jones on drums.



Track list:

1. Friday The Thirteenth
2. Let's Call This
3. Think Of One

 

'Thelonious Monk Quintet' [Apparently Prestige didn’t seem interested in spending a lot of time on album titles - Ed.] is the third LP in the Prestige 10-inch set.  It was recorded in 1954 and features a lot more personnel shifts: Art Blakey is back behind the drum kit, Frank Foster replaces Rollins on tenor sax, Curly Russell plays bass, and Ray Copeland introduces the trumpet to the Monk Prestige sound.

Track list:

1. We See
2. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
3. Locomotive
4. Hackensack

'Thelonious Monk Plays' is the fourth LP, and it’s back to the trio format, with Percy Heath on bass, and Art Blakey on drums.



Track list:

1. Work
2. Nutty
3. Blue Monk
4. Just A Gigolo

'Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk' is the final LP in the set. It was originally conceived as a Sonny Rollins album with bassist Tommy Potter, drummer Art Taylor and pianist Elmo Hope as sidemen, the situation quickly changed when Hope was arrested on dope charges and Monk was brought in to take his place.

Track list:

1. The Way You Look Tonight
2. I Want To Be Happy
3. More Than You Know

The entire five-LP set is one delightful treat after another, not just because you’re hearing an extremely innovative musician and composer like Thelonious Monk at one of his greatest creative peaks, but because this particular era – like so much of Monk’s output – has never quite been replicated by anyone since. 

For the freeload, tell us about a person you know (or knew) who reminds you of a character in a TV show or movie?

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.

Interpretations of Monk

On November 1, 1981, a few months before Thelonious Monk’s death, there were two tribute concerts (an afternoon and evening show), that took place at Columbia University, here in Manhattan, and make up this 4CD set.

There were two sets in the afternoon show, the first featured pianist Muhal Richard Abrams (CD1), and the second set was by Barry Harris (CD2), both sets featured soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, Thelonious' longtime tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, trombonist Roswell Rudd, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Richard Davis, with drummer Ben Riley playing on Muhal Richard Abrams’ set, and drummer Ed Blackwell on Barry Harris’ set. At the end of Muhal Richard Abrams’ set, Amiri Baraka reads his poem ‘Bang, Bang Outishly’.

The evening show was also two sets, the first set was Anthony Davis (CD3), and the second set was Mal Waldron (CD4), the backing musicians were the same as the afternoon show, with drummer Ed Blackwell playing on Anthony Davis’ set, and drummer Ed Blackwell on Mal Waldron’s set.

 

 

If you’re a fan of Thelonious’ music, I highly recommend this wonderful set.

To qualify for this freeload, what are some of your favorite live albums?