5 STARS DOWN BEAT MAGAZINE
This release presents the complete original album Monk’s Music, featuring Monk with John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins. Also included here are all other existing studio master takes recorded by Monk and Trane and a blues performance from the same sessions (in which Monk sits out).
Includes 16-page booklet
PERSONNEL:
JOHN COLTRANE, tenor sax
THELONIOUS MONK, piano
On all tracks plus:
1-6: Monk’s Music:
Ray Copeland (tp), Gigi Gryce (as), Coleman Hawkins (ts)
Wilbur Ware (b), Art Blakey (d).
New York, June 26, 1957.
Coltrane, Copeland & Gryce out on 3.
Bonus Tracks (7-11):
7-8 & 11: Wilbur Ware (b), Shadow Wilson (d). New York, July, 1957.
9: Wilbur Ware (b). New York, April 16, 1957.
10: Same place and date as 1-6. Thelonious Monk out.
Tracks:
01 ABIDE WITH ME 0:54
02 WELL YOU NEEDN’T 11:25
03 RUBY MY DEAR [featuring Coleman Hawkins] 5:26
04 OFF MINOR 5:08
05 EPISTROPHY 10:45
06 CREPUSCULE WITH NELLIE 4:40
07 NUTTY 6:39*
08 TRINKLE TINKLE 6:40*
09 MONK’S MOOD 7:55*
10 BLUES FOR TOMORROW 13:35*
11 RUBY MY DEAR [featuring John Coltrane] 6:20*
Total Time: 79:33
All compositions by Thelonious Monk except “Blues for Tomorrow” (Gigi Gryce).
DOWN BEAT original review: 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)