THELONIOUS MONK
Monk In Paris (Thelonious Records/Hyena)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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All true jazz performers, as practitioners of an improvisational form, are creators, but while many can create an original solo, song or even book of songs, there are a few that step beyond and create a new music altogether, a music that resides within but permanently and positively transforms the idiom at the same time. Thelonious Monk was one of the few, and one of the greatest within that select group. As an innovator of the first order, it took a while for the jazz world to catch up to Monk, and while he's the subject of considerable reverence today, he was the subject of considerable controversy for much of his early career.

By the time the tracks on this album were recorded in concert in 1965, though, his reputation was well established and he had a reliable quartet, including saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist Larry Gales and drummer Ben Riley, who could both support and augment his style. The seven tracks from a Paris concert display an artist who had weathered the questions and criticisms that had greeted some of his innovations and built a solid reputation and an impressive original book. This material is made available through an arrangement between Monk's son, the drummer T.S. Monk, and producer Joel Dorn, to present some of the best material in the Thelonious Monk archives controlled by T.S. There's a promise of many hours of quality music to come, but it will be hard to top the hour provided here.

If there's a way to top the sound, it just might be with the sight. The CD is accompanied by a three track DVD, giving a new audience the opportunity to see Thelonious Monk, along with Rouse, Gales and Riley, in action during a 1966 show in Oslo, Norway. It's an impressive bonus offering to an album that's a wonderful addition to the Monk catalog in itself.

Track List:

Rhythm-A-Ning * Body & Soul * I Mean You * April In Paris * Well You Needn't * Bright Mississippi * Epistrophy

Bonus DVD Tracks: Lulu's Back In Town * Blue Monk * 'Round Midnight

© 2003 - Shaun Dale