AMERICAN JAZZ CLASSICS
LIMITED EDITION IN SPECIAL SIX-PANEL DIGIPACK + INSIDE BOOKLET
THELONIOUS MONK featuring JOHN COLTRANE / MONK'S MUSIC THE COMPLETE LP + 5 BONUS TRACKS
Presented here is the complete original album Monk's Music (Riverside RLP12-242), featuring Thelonious Monk with a septet including both tenor sax luminaries John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins. This edition also contains further studio recordings by Monk and Trane, among them a blues performance from the same sessions (in which Monk sits out) and an outstanding alternative take of "Off Minor".
Down Beat: Monk's Music "The album is to date the best cross section of what Monk is doing today with a group. Throughout, Monk is the dominant force. The music, whether blown by the horns or rapped out by his hands, is as much a part of him as his thoughts. It is a tribute to Monk that within this intensely personal music, a soloist like Coltrane can develop a singularly personal style of his own, while fitting into the frame of Monk's reference. This is one to play again and again with no diminution of pleasure, or of discovery." (Dom Cerulli)
THELONIOUS MONK, piano; JOHN COLTRANE, tenor sax. Plus: 1-2 & 4-6: Ray Copeland (tp), Gigi Gryce (as), Coleman Hawkins (ts), Wilbur Ware (b), Art Blakey (d). New York, June 26, 1957. 3 & 7-8: Wilbur Ware (b), Shadow Wilson (d). New York, July 1957. 9: Wilbur Ware (b). New York, April 16, 1957. 10-11: Same place and date as 1-2 & 4-6. Monk out on track 10.
