• THE COMPLETE LP + 2 BONUS TRACKS

• Contains new specially prepared liner notes by Penguin Guide to Jazz's writer BRIAN MORTON and by Paris' prestigious JAZZ MAGAZINE. LIMITED EDITION

This album marks Thelonious Monk's sole recording as a member of Art Blakey's celebrated Jazz Messengers. The pianist and drummer were very close friends who understood each other well on both a personal and musical level. In fact, Blakey was present on both Monk's first and last studio sessions, spanning a period of 24 years from the 1947 quintet and trio recordings to the last sets taped in London in 1971, when Blakey and Monk were touring with the group called the "Giants of Jazz" (which also included Sonny Stitt, Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding and Al McKibbon).

With the exception of Johnny Griffin's "Purple Shades", all of the compositions on this album are classic Thelonious Monk tunes.

PERSONNEL:

THELONIOUS MONK - (piano)
ART BLAKEY - (drums)
JOHNNY GRIFFIN - (tenor sax)
BILL HARDMAN - (trumpet)
SPANKY DeBREST - (bass)

New York City, May 14 (A3, B1) & 15 (A1-A2; B2-B3), 1957

(*) BONUS TRACKS:
A4: George Tait (tp), Sahib Shihab (as), Thelonious Monk (p), Bob Paige (b), Art Blakey (d).
New York, November 21, 1947.
B4: Thelonious Monk (unaccompanied piano).
Paris, France, June 7, 1954.

TRACKS:

A1 EVIDENCE
A2 IN WALKED BUD
A3 BLUE MONK
A4 IN WALKED BUD [first version] (*)

B1 I MEAN YOU
B2 RHYTHM-A-NING
B3 PURPLE SHADES
B4 EVIDENCE [solo piano versión] (*)