| Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Thelonious Monk |
| Cover: | Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins.jpg |
| Released: | 1956 |
| Recorded: | November 13, 1953 September 22, 1954 October 25, 1954 WOR Studios, NYC and Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Length: | 34:02 |
| Label: | Prestige |
| Producer: | Bob Weinstock Ira Gitler |
| Prev Title: | Monk |
| Prev Year: | 1956 |
| Next Title: | Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington |
| Next Year: | 1956 |
Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins is a compilation album by jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and saxophonist Sonny Rollins released in 1956 by Prestige Records.[1] The tracks on it were recorded in three sessions between 1953 and 1954. While this is its original title, and its most consistent title in its digital re-releases, it was also released on Prestige as Work! (1959, PRLP 7169)[2] and The Genius Of Thelonious Monk (1967, PR 7656),[3] with alternative covers.[4]
The album is culled from the results of three recording sessions over a span of close to twelve months featuring different personnel. Although Rollins is credited as a co-leader on the album cover, he appears on only three of the album's five tracks. It was the final Monk release on Prestige before he moved to a contract with Riverside Records.
The track "Friday the 13th" was recorded in November 1953 with a quintet of Monk, Rollins, Julius Watkins, Percy Heath, and Willie Jones; the September 1954 recordings are of a trio with Monk, Heath, and Art Blakey; and the October 1954 session Monk and Rollins again with bassist Tommy Potter and drummer Art Taylor.[5] Of the three Monk originals, "Friday the 13th" was written in the studio during the recording session, released as a ten-minute jam to fill out the album's running time.[6] Monk would return to "Nutty" again and again through his career, but this was his only recording of the composition "Work."[7]
The recordings on this 12" LP originally appeared in 1954 on three 10" LPs: Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows for LP (Prestige PRLP 166), Thelonious Monk Plays (Prestige PRLP 189)[8] and Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk (Prestige PRLP 190).[9] [10]
Chris Sheridan, in his book Brilliant Corners: A Bio-discography of Thelonious Monk, dates the first 12-inch vinyl release of Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (Prestige PRLP 7075) to 1956. Its release was immediately preceded in the Prestige 12-inch catalog of Monk's work by Thelonious Monk Trio (Prestige PRLP 7027), and Thelonious Monk, aka Monk (PRLP 7053).[11]
All compositions by Thelonious Monk, except where indicated.
Side one
Side two
Notes