Thelonious Monk, solo on Vogue

[Guy Berger]

I'm in the process of filling in holes in my Monk collection and this is the only omission (at least as far as official recordings) in the pre-1957 era. I assume I should pick it up ASAP? How does it compare to Thelonious Himself or Alone in San Francisco?

Why did Monk lean toward slow tempos when playing solo?

Guy

[AndrewHill]

Personally, I'd grab the solo Monk 2 cd set on Columbia, but the Vogue material is also very good, especially the date from 1954.

Hope that helps,

HG

[AndrewHill]

To answer your second question, I think things were toned down because Monk was too out there for a general audience, which BN, Prestige, and Riverside could hande, but not a major label like Columbia. I'm sure there are those that were there or those that researched this, would know this better than my account.

[jlhoots]

I'm in the process of filling in holes in my Monk collection and this is the only omission (at least as far as official recordings) in the pre-1957 era. I assume I should pick it up ASAP? How does it compare to Thelonious Himself or Alone in San Francisco?

Why did Monk lean toward slow tempos when playing solo?

Guy

The Vogue material is very good, although I must admit I listen to Himself & San Francisco more often.

[mjzee]

Is this material available on any American label?

[jeffcrom]

Is this material available on any American label?

It was issued on BMG/RCA's "In Paris" series, paired with a session by stride pianist Joe Turner. It's out of print right now, but there are lots of copies for sale by Amazon vendors.

[JSngry]

Is this material available on any American label?

It was issued on BMG/RCA's "In Paris" series, paired with a session by stride pianist Joe Turner. It's out of print right now, but there are lots of copies for sale by Amazon vendors.

And it was on GNP for the longest, on LP.

[mikeweil]

Slow tempos? Monk always played slow to medium fast, never as fast as the showoff boppers ... (not meaning to put them down). I don't think his solo tempos are out of his normal range. Some of the Rioverside solos are rather contemplative tempos, that's obvious.

The Vogue was his first full-fledged solo LP, after one or two on the Prestige LPs. I think it's good - it has a certain fluency you don't hear on his Prestige or Blue Note sides.

Edited April 6, 2009 by mikeweil