THE COMPLETE 1957 RIVERSIDE RECORDINGS
OF THELONIOUS MONK & JOHN COLTRANE
DUE OUT JUNE 27 AS A 2-CD SET
PRODUCED & ANNOTATED BY
ORIGINAL PRODUCER ORRIN KEEPNEWS
“Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I learned from him in every way." --JOHN COLTRANE
Pianist/composer Thelonious Monk and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane-genius mentor and budding genius-joined forces in a fabled Monk-led quartet that worked steadily at New York's Five Spot Caf for a five-month period, between July and December 1957. And in the spring and summer of that year, they met in the recording studio on four occasions for the Riverside label, with producer Orrin Keepnews and a varying supporting cast.
The results of those sessions, which comprise the sum total of the music Monk and Coltrane created together in a recording-studio setting, have been collected in a new 2-CD Riverside set aptly titled The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings. Due for release June 27, the package was compiled by original producer Keepnews, who also wrote a revealing essay about the making of the music. Two previously unissued alternate takes-"Crepuscule with Nellie," from the June 25 septet date with Coleman Hawkins and Art Blakey; and the 19th-century William Monk-penned hymn “Abide with Me," recorded the following evening-are included.
Sequenced chronologically, the set commences with the ballad “Monk's Mood," with Coltrane and bassist Wilbur Ware, recorded in April 1957 for the otherwise-solo album Thelonious Himself.
On two late-June evenings, Keepnews assembled a Monk septet (with trumpeter Ray Copeland and alto saxist Gigi Gryce in addition to Coltrane, Hawkins, Ware, and Blakey) that produced the classic Monk's Music album.
The final session took place in July, with Monk, Coltrane, Ware, and drummer Shadow Wilson-the original Five Spot quartet-cutting three tracks ("Ruby, My Dear," “Nutty," “Trinkle, Tinkle"). In his notes, Keepnews explains how it happened that the group was never captured live during their extended Five Spot engagement: Coltrane had just been signed to a Prestige contract, and though Prestige's Bob Weinstock would have permitted reciprocal use of his artist to Riverside, former Prestige artist Monk-who'd had a less than amicable parting with the label-would have none of it.
At the time of the July session, the quartet had just begun their Five Spot run, the impact of which Keepnews describes as “unexpected and amazing. Somehow," he writes, “Coltrane, now becoming thoroughly compatible with (and actually enhancing) the Monk idiom, was reaching listeners in a way he had never previously achieved with Miles Davis. What I found most impressive was how immediately jazz fans with a sense of history were making comparisons to an event a quarter-century earlier, when the major New Orleans cornetist of that era had summoned his protg-twenty-two-year-old Louis Armstrong-to join his band at a club in Chicago. (To extend that parallel further, both Armstrong and Coltrane remained with their mentors for something less than half a year, but both pairings are probably permanently ranked among the most meaningful collaborations in the history of jazz.)"
In another nod to history, the cover image-Monk and Coltrane on a postage stamp-recalls the postage-stamp likeness of Monk that appeared on his Unique album. Riverside publicist Billie Wallington famously had perforated sheets of the “stamps" created and distributed, and, to the chagrin of the U.S. Postal Service, some of these pseudo-stamps, when affixed to letters, managed to get at least a few of those letters delivered.
OF THELONIOUS MONK & JOHN COLTRANE
DUE OUT JUNE 27 AS A 2-CD SET
PRODUCED & ANNOTATED BY
ORIGINAL PRODUCER ORRIN KEEPNEWS
“Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I learned from him in every way." --JOHN COLTRANE
Pianist/composer Thelonious Monk and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane-genius mentor and budding genius-joined forces in a fabled Monk-led quartet that worked steadily at New York's Five Spot Caf for a five-month period, between July and December 1957. And in the spring and summer of that year, they met in the recording studio on four occasions for the Riverside label, with producer Orrin Keepnews and a varying supporting cast.The results of those sessions, which comprise the sum total of the music Monk and Coltrane created together in a recording-studio setting, have been collected in a new 2-CD Riverside set aptly titled The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings. Due for release June 27, the package was compiled by original producer Keepnews, who also wrote a revealing essay about the making of the music. Two previously unissued alternate takes-"Crepuscule with Nellie," from the June 25 septet date with Coleman Hawkins and Art Blakey; and the 19th-century William Monk-penned hymn “Abide with Me," recorded the following evening-are included.
Sequenced chronologically, the set commences with the ballad “Monk's Mood," with Coltrane and bassist Wilbur Ware, recorded in April 1957 for the otherwise-solo album Thelonious Himself.
On two late-June evenings, Keepnews assembled a Monk septet (with trumpeter Ray Copeland and alto saxist Gigi Gryce in addition to Coltrane, Hawkins, Ware, and Blakey) that produced the classic Monk's Music album.
The final session took place in July, with Monk, Coltrane, Ware, and drummer Shadow Wilson-the original Five Spot quartet-cutting three tracks ("Ruby, My Dear," “Nutty," “Trinkle, Tinkle"). In his notes, Keepnews explains how it happened that the group was never captured live during their extended Five Spot engagement: Coltrane had just been signed to a Prestige contract, and though Prestige's Bob Weinstock would have permitted reciprocal use of his artist to Riverside, former Prestige artist Monk-who'd had a less than amicable parting with the label-would have none of it.
At the time of the July session, the quartet had just begun their Five Spot run, the impact of which Keepnews describes as “unexpected and amazing. Somehow," he writes, “Coltrane, now becoming thoroughly compatible with (and actually enhancing) the Monk idiom, was reaching listeners in a way he had never previously achieved with Miles Davis. What I found most impressive was how immediately jazz fans with a sense of history were making comparisons to an event a quarter-century earlier, when the major New Orleans cornetist of that era had summoned his protg-twenty-two-year-old Louis Armstrong-to join his band at a club in Chicago. (To extend that parallel further, both Armstrong and Coltrane remained with their mentors for something less than half a year, but both pairings are probably permanently ranked among the most meaningful collaborations in the history of jazz.)"
In another nod to history, the cover image-Monk and Coltrane on a postage stamp-recalls the postage-stamp likeness of Monk that appeared on his Unique album. Riverside publicist Billie Wallington famously had perforated sheets of the “stamps" created and distributed, and, to the chagrin of the U.S. Postal Service, some of these pseudo-stamps, when affixed to letters, managed to get at least a few of those letters delivered.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
