But the Prestige recordings offered him the opportunity to reach wider critical and commercial acceptance. A run-in with the law resulted in the revoking of Monk’s cabaret card, which resulted in a lack of any potential income-generating gigs in New York City. Kelley.Īlthough Monk had been recording as early as 1944 (as a member of the Coleman Hawkins Quartet) and recorded intermittently for Blue Note Records from 1947 to 1952, by the time he secured a contract with Prestige, he was living in dark times. A new booklet contains a slew of liner notes courtesy of Monk biographer Robin D. Jacket design and LP labels have all been faithfully reproduced, while the original recordings have been carefully restored and remastered. Craft Recordings – the folks who brought us the stunning 25th-anniversary reissue of R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People last month – assembled a limited-edition box set that includes all five of the 10-inch vinyl LPs the legendary pianist recorded for Prestige Records from 1952 to 1954. In the 35 years since Monk’s passing – not to mention the roughly 45 years since he last toured or recorded – jazz enthusiasts and record companies have been having a field day reissuing classic Monk recordings and unearthing long-forgotten sessions. To put it in perspective, Monk’s compositions are the second-most recorded in jazz after Duke Ellington, and while Ellington composed more than a thousand pieces of music, Monk wrote about 70. Despite – or perhaps because of – his reclusive, unconventional nature and penchant for going against the grain throughout his artistic career, Monk is regarded as one of the true giants of jazz music. Thelonious Sphere Monk passed away in 1982, and if he were still alive, he’d be turning 100 this year. The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection will also be released in high-resolution and standard audio formats across all streaming and digital platforms.įans can pre-order the set by clicking here.“The piano ain’t got no wrong notes.” – Thelonious Monk “That’s the mark of a true musical genius, indeed.” “Listening to these tracks more than 60 years after they were recorded, it’s stunning how compelling, modern and original Monk’s music still sounds, even through the filter of 21st-century ears,” observed the collection’s producer, Nick Phillips. Also produced by Gitler, the LP includes an 11-minute jam of Vincent Youmans’ “More Than You Know” which, Kelley describes as “the session’s masterpiece, a sublime dialogue between two great masters of modern music.”Īudio for the box set was restored and remastered by Joe Tarantino from the original analog tapes, with lacquer cutting by George Horn and Anne-Marie Seunram at Fantasy Studios. But he ultimately received co-billing on the resultant 10-inch LP release, Sonny Rollins And Thelonious Monk. In the final 10-inch LP in this collection, recorded in October 1954, Monk was actually a last-minute replacement for Elmo Hope at a Sonny Rollins session. Thelonious Monk Quintet and Thelonious Plays followed in 1954. The resulting 10-inch LP release was titled Thelonious.īy the fall of 1953, Monk returned to the studio, this time with a quintet, for Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows For LP, featuring Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone.
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Weeks later, the Thelonious Monk Trio-consisting of drummer Art Blakey (as well as Max Roach on select tracks) and bassist Gary Mapp-went to work in the studio, with a young Ira Gitler as producer. Monk’s fortune began to change, though, in 1952, when Prestige Records’ founder Bob Weinstock offered him a recording contract. In his liner notes, Kelley refers to this era as the “golden years in terms of creative output” but, he adds, “these were also dark times.” Following an unjust run-in with the law, the jazz musician’s cabaret card was revoked, preventing him from performing at New York clubs, and restricting his income. In the early ’50s, Monk was struggling to find critical and commercial acceptance. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. The set includes a booklet with new liner notes by Robin D. The limited-edition box set includes all five of the 10-inch vinyl LPs that Monk (1917–’82) recorded for the label, spanning the period 1952–’54.
![thelonious monk vinyl thelonious monk vinyl](https://www.birdland.com.au/assets/full/190758089010.jpg)
The 10-inch vinyl LP is relatively rare nowadays, but fans of the format-and of pianist-composer Thelonious Monk-will want to seek out a forthcoming box set with five such platters.Ĭraft Recordings, the catalog division of Concord Music, will release The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection on Dec. (Photo: Francis Wolff © Mosaic Images LLC
![thelonious monk vinyl thelonious monk vinyl](https://www.popsike.com/pix/20190712/113816001899.jpg)
Craft Recordings will release a limited-edition box set that includes all five of the 10-inch vinyl LPs Thelonious Monk recorded for the label, spanning the period 1952–’54.