Thelonious, My Old Friend....

The clubs have yet to reopen. For this week's concert, I suggest we visit the original Five Spot Cafe' - which was demolished in 1962 - to catch the Thelonious Monk Quartet on August 7, 1958.
Get a bottle of something nice, and make plans for dinner. It is serious jazz, but of the type that can serve as background music. Last week's jazz offering, from It's About That Time: Miles Davis at the Filmore East, was the type of jazz that elicits "the question" from The Wife: "Honey...what are we listening to?"

It's not really a question...she's actually telling me to turn this shit off...and during OUR time I actively choose music with an aim toward avoiding it.

The things we do for love.

This week's show was recorded during Monk's second six-month residency at the club. The band included Roy Haynes on drums, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass and Johnny Griffin on tenor sax. Griffin had played several of the tunes on Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk a year earlier. Orrin Keepnews, of Riverside Records, had tried to record the Quartet in July, but Monk was not happy with the results. Why? Who knows, it sounds good, but Thelonious was satisfied with the August recordings. Two albums, Thelonious in Action and Misterioso were released later in the year, documenting the night. Setlist.fm gives us the original song order.

These two albums were the last of a streak that began with Brilliant Corners and Monk's Music. After these shows, Thelonious goes on to greater commercial success with Charlie Rouse on tenor, but he doesn't write that much new music and he doesn't necessarily improve on his older numbers when he revisits them.

Listen as you will. If you don't hear the piano during the solos, Monk is likely dancing through the club or serving drinks at the bar. Turn it up loud enough and the audience is barely audible - a low hubbub, that doesn't get in the way - like you're in the club.

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