| Monk's Music | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Thelonious Monk |
| Cover: | monkmusic.jpg |
| Recorded: | June 25–26, 1957 |
| Studio: | Reeves Sound Studio, New York City |
| Genre: | Hard bop |
| Length: | 38:24 |
| Label: | Riverside Records |
| Producer: | Orrin Keepnews |
| Prev Title: | Thelonious Himself |
| Prev Year: | 1957 |
| Next Title: | Mulligan Meets Monk |
| Next Year: | 1957 |
Monk's Music is a jazz album by the Thelonious Monk Septet, which for this recording included Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane. It was recorded in New York City on June 26, 1957, and released in November the same year.[1] [2]
The first song, "Abide With Me"—a hymn by W. H. Monk—is played only by the septet's horn section. The song "Ruby, My Dear" is performed only by Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Wilbur Ware, and Art Blakey. John Coltrane had joined Monk after playing with the Miles Davis Quintet, and Monk can be heard enthusiastically calling on him ("Coltrane! Coltrane!") to take the first horn solo on the album in "Well, You Needn't." All of the tracks except "Abide With Me" are original compositions by Monk; all of the originals but "Crepuscule with Nellie" had previously appeared on record. This is the only record where Hawkins and Blakey recorded together.
This was the first Riverside Thelonious Monk album recorded and released in both mono (RLP 12-242) and stereo (RLP 1102). The stereo version was released nine months after the mono release, in August 1958.[3] It has been noted that the mixes of these releases are extremely different. The stereo mix, while featuring the same performances as does the mono version, used an entirely different set of microphones, suspended from the ceiling, while the mono release used microphones in closer proximity to the instruments. As a result, the stereo mix has a more distant sound and Wilbur Ware's bass is much less audible.[4]
Producer Orrin Keepnews explained:
In the notes to the 1986 Riverside Monk box, Keepnews wrote: "This was one of our very first stereo recordings (although the separate machine failed us on Crepuscule); confusingly, the monaural version has sometimes been used in reissues, but I have managed to include here in stereo form everything that is available in that form."[5]
The original stereo LP release did not list "Crepuscule with Nellie" on its label or cover track listing, although it was referenced in the liner notes, and did not include it on the album. A mid-1960s stereo re-release with serial number RLP 12-9242 also skipped "Crepuscule with Nellie", even though it was listed on the label and cover (as "Crepescule with Nellie" [sic]). The 1967 "stereo" pressing (RS 3004) distributed by ABC Records was an "electronically reprocessed" version of the mono mix. A 1977 Japanese vinyl version appears to be the first true stereo release that also includes the mono recording of "Crepuscule with Nellie".[6]
The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.[7]
The album was reissued by Original Jazz Classics on July 1, 1991.
All songs by Thelonious Monk unless otherwise noted.
Side A
Side B
CD reissue
Original Jazz Classics Remasters