Thelonious Monk: Monk's Dream/Monk/At Newport 1963 & 1965

Recorded in the fall of 1964, the selections that make up the album Monk (Columbia/Legacy 86564) are somewhat unusual in that they come primarily from the canon of modern standards; only “Teo” and “Pannonica” are Monk originals—and lesser-known ones at that. That doesn’t in any way take away from the quality of the album as a whole. In fact, Rouse and Monk, now in the company of bassist Larry Gales and drummer Ben Riley, sound freer then ever as they explore these established items with abandon. “Children’s Song (That Old Man)” should sound familiar to just about everyone, but its singsong nature seems perfectly attuned to Monk’s progressive style. Three unissued alternate takes add considerably to what might be the sleeper of Monk’s Columbia oeuvre.

Finally, we come to the two-disc set At Newport 1963 & 1965 (Columbia 63905) wherein we get the complete 1963 Newport performance that found iconoclast clarinetist Pee Wee Russell sitting in with the Monk quartet on two numbers. Even more cause for celebration has to be the unearthing of a totally unheard four-song set from Newport in July of 1965. Rouse, Gales, and Riley support Monk on the numbers “Off Minor,” “Ruby, My Dear,” “Hackensack,” and “Epistrophy,” and the results are uniformly excellent—as is the live sound recording. Not even listed previously in discographies, these unissued discoveries are worth the price of admission by themselves.