Thelonious Monk Quartet – Misterioso (1958/2012) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Thelonious Monk Quartet – Misterioso (1958/2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:15:45 minutes | 2,83 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Recorded in performance by Ray Fowler at the Five Spot Cafe, New York City; July 9 (#8 only) and August 7 (other selections), 1958.
24-bit Remastering by Joe Tarantino at Joe Tarantino Mastering, Berkeley, CA

The most impressive point to be made about this record is that it is a product of precisely the same night’s work as the earlier Riverside album, Thelonious in Action (now OJCCD-103-2); the two are in all respects a matched set. On the evening of August 7, 1958, recording equipment was rather precariously set up in the always-overcrowded Five Spot, the room where Monk had made his triumphant recent return to the New York club scene and was now appearing with a new quartet featuring Johnny Griffin. This turned out to be the first successful live recording of Thelonious (he had rejected the results of a night’s work here a month earlier), and the substantial numbers of Monk-approved performances were readily programmed onto two full and equally memorable albums.

This is the second long-player to be taken from the same August 1958 Five Spot recordings that had yielded the similarly brilliant Thelonious in Action The quartet heard on these sets includes Monk (piano), Johnny Griffin (tenor sax), Roy Haynes (drums), and Ahmed Abdul-Malik (bass). Their overwhelming and instinctual capacities directly contribute to the powerful swingin’ and cohesive sound they could continually reinvent. While these are Monk’s tunes, arrangements, and band, it is Griffin who consistently liberates the performances. During “Nutty,” his flurry of activity — which adeptly incorporates several lines from “Surrey With the Fringe on Top” — has a maniacal swing that is highlighted by some definitive counterplay from both Haynes and Monk. Additionally, the transition between Haynes and Monk is organic and seemingly psychic. “Blues Five Spot” — a 12-bar blues homage to their current residence — features solos from each band member. Griffin and Monk again display the seemingly innate ability to instantly recalculate chord structures as well as transmute melodies. The show-stopping solo vamp from Griffin hurls the rhythm along while simultaneously dropping in quotes from other tunes — such as the theme for the animated Popeye cinematic shorts. Malik’s brief solo, like his band interaction, is underrated yet precisely executed. The title track is given an exploratory performance. While Griffin aptly seizes the reins to blow his bop onslaught, Haynes’ natural and subdued agility perfectly supports the extended tenor solo, creating some unique passages. Ironically, the one Monk solo performance, “Just a Gigolo,” is the only composition not by Monk. –Lindsay Planer

Tracklist:
01. Thelonious Monk Quartet – Nutty (05:23)
02. Thelonious Monk Quartet – Blues Five Spot (08:14)
03. Thelonious Monk Quartet – Let’s Cool One (09:16)
04. Thelonious Monk Quartet – In Walked Bud (11:20)
05. Thelonious Monk Quartet – Just A Gigolo (02:06)
06. Thelonious Monk Quartet – Misterioso (10:54)
07. Thelonious Monk Quartet – Evidence (10:17)
08. Thelonious Monk Quartet – ‘Round Midnight (06:17)
09. Thelonious Monk Quartet – Bye-Ya / Epistrophy (Theme) (11:54)

Personnel:
Thelonious Monk—piano
Johnny Griffin—tenor saxophone
Ahmed Abdul-Malik—bass
Roy Haynes—drums
Art Blakey—drums (#9 only)
(“Just a Gigolo” is an unaccompanied piano solo.)

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