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| The Unique Thelonious Monk |
| Thelonious Monk |
| első megjelenés éve: 1956 |
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| (2006)
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CD |
Kérjen
árajánlatot! |
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| 1. | Liza (All The Clouds'll Roll Away)
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| 2. | Memories Of You
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| 3. | Honeysuckle Rose
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| 4. | Darn That Dream
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| 5. | Tea For Two
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| 6. | You Are Too Beautiful
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| 7. | Just You, Just Me
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Jazz
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on March 17 & April 3, 1956
Thelonious Monk - Piano
Art Blakey - Drums
Kenny Clarke - Drums
Oscar Pettiford - Bass
Monk's second album for Riverside continued the label's initial plan–to broaden his audience by the use of recognizable standard tunes instead of his somewhat frightening originals. Thelonious's uncompromising performances, major-league support (Art Blakey and Oscar Pettiford), and strong material all helped turn this concept into lastingly superior jazz. Particularly notable are his sharp thrusts of humor on such well-worn pieces as "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Tea for Two." The album's impact was strengthened by one of the most unique covers ever devised (Riverside went so far as to print quantities of almost postage-sized Monk stamps; quite a few found their way through the mails!).
In an effort to force the musical mainstream to reasses Thelonious Monk, Riverside producer Orrin Keepnews asked the pianist to record an album of familiar American standards. Much to Riverside's surprise, many of the same critics who'd previously dismissed Monk's music for being too abstract now criticized his new label for putting him in a creative straitjacket. However, with the benefit of hindsight, we can hear clearly the pianist's roots in the Tin Pan Alley tradition throughout THE UNIQUE THELONIOUS MONK.
Monk begins with a hard-swinging rendition of Gershwin's "Liza," introducing some subtle rhythmic variations on the theme and a touch of boogie woogie in the bridge. The pianist's rolling lines and jagged punctuations culminate in a rollicking two-handed assault; although he pulls back in the second chorus to showcase Oscar Pettiford's irrepresibly melodic bass lines, as he and Art Blakey engage in some airborne morse code. After the drummer's thrilling exposition, Monk returns with punctilious accents and giddy trills, making "Liza" one of the great jazz performances.
His solo subtle dissonances, spacious dynamics, pregnant pauses and lyrical abstractions notwithstanding, Monk's solo rendition of "Memories Of You" treats Eubie Blake's classic song with restrained affection. "Honeysuckle Rose" begins with a boisterous stride intro, and proceeds through brassy two-handed passages and a serpentine confluence of horn-like melodic lines. Monk introduces stunning harmonic abstractions to the bridge of "Darn That Dream," expanding upon those voicings with acerbic elan during his solo passages. And his tongue-in-cheek intro to "Tea For Two" is almost Tatumesque--check out the spatial chords he lays behind Pettiford's bass interlude, before decomposing the theme with ribald syncopations, convoluted new voicings and rhythmic changes.
Originally released on Riverside (209)
* Bill Grauer - Producer
* Harris Lewine - Cover Design, Cover Production, Design
* Ken Braren - Cover Design, Cover Production, Design
* Kirk Felton - Digital Remastering
* Lawrence Shustak - Cover Photo, Cover Production, Photography
* Orrin Keepnews - Liner Notes, Producer
* Paul Bacon - Cover Design, Cover Production, Design
* Rudy Van Gelder - Engineer
The seven-song Unique Thelonious Monk (1956) platter was the pianist's second during his remarkable five-year tenure on Riverside. His debut for the label was the aptly titled Plays Duke Ellington (1955) and once again, on this disc, Monk's song selection did not feature any original compositions. Rather, the well-chosen standards included exemplify and help further establish the pianist and bandleader within the context of familiar melodies at the head of a trio -- consisting of Oscar Pettiford (bass) and Art Blakey (drums). Regarding the personnel, while Pettiford had also accompanied Monk on the Ellington sides, Blakey replaces Kenny Clarke. The pairing of Monk and Blakey cannot be overstated. Immediately, evidence of their uncanny instrumental interaction is the rhythmic focal point of "Liza, All the Clouds'll Roll Away" as the two play musical cat-and-mouse. They cajole and wheedle atop Pettiford's undulating undercurrent as it sonically corals their skilled syncopation and otherwise inspired mile-a-minute interjections. This is starkly contrast to the haunting, lyrical piano solo on "Memories of You." Monk infuses the piece with such profound ingenuity and integrity that his re-evaluation and innovative arrangement are singularly and undeniably his own. Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose" reels with a frolicking and ever-so-slightly inebriated gate. It is likewise highlighted by Monk's dreamlike single-note runs up and down the keyboard and the stride piano-style chord progressions that preserves a fluidity within the tune. The advanced score maintains a guise of almost goofy abandon within Monk's highly logical and well-sculpted musical structure. The juxtaposition of "Darn That Dream" is another study in the vacillating moods of The Unique Thelonious Monk. The sophisticated performance is understated, yet remains loose and limber and perfectly in keeping with the album's leitmotif of exploring Monk's skills as an arranger and musician. As if he were testing his audience, the manic and atonal opening to "Tea for Two" -- briefly featuring Pettiford on bowed upright bass -- rollicks with a youthful visage, rather than being a simple reworking of this well-established classic. This LP concludes with one of Monk's most memorable pieces on the fun and freewheeling "Just You, Just Me." The trio struts and glides as Monk's intricate fingering simultaneously displays his physical dexterity as well as his ability to play so deftly in the moment. Both attributes would resurface ten-fold once Monk began to animate his own compositions on the genre-defining Brilliant Corners (1956).
--- Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide |
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