Monk "Les Liasons Dangereus"

[Gheorghe]

Nothing new or unexpected, but a very fine recording.

Charlie Rouse is in top form and his solo on Rhythm a Ning is fantastic, and it´s interesting to hear him with Barney Wilen, who is also great and his sound and phrasing reminds me a bit of the early Sonny Rollins. 

A really strange version of "Light Blue", usually it´s played in a faster ballad style like a "slow fox", but here it has a certain beat that could have been worked out a little better if it would have been 10-12 years later as a rock beat. Here it sounds a bit like if a drummer just settles his drum set before a gig. 
Art Taylors drumming is a bit more subdued in comparation with other drummers like Roy Haynes or Ben Riley. I heard him in 1985 with a Tommy Flanagan Trio and his playing was really a highlight. 

The second CD is more remainders from the studio work. I could survive without the "Making of Blue Light", all those false starts, which is remarkable for such a simple tune. It´s like the second bonus CD on the reussue of Mingus 1970 in Paris, where the 2nd CD is full of false starts and studio discussion. 

[Teasing the Korean]

This indeed has some great stuff, though the presentation is off.  I would have preferred a tight album presentation for disc 1, with all of the alternates and archival stuff on disc 2.   I had to burn a CD-R that plays like a real album.

I agree about the weird version of "Light Blue" with the Proto-"rock" beat.  Interesting, but nothing I want to revisit anytime soon.

I would also have preferred appropriate cover art, rather than an image of Monk. (Coltrane's score for Le Chat Dans Le Sac similarly used inappropriate cover art.)

One of these days, I need to get digital versions of either the Art Blakey or Duke Jordan albums, so I can integrate those into the program and create an Extremely Dangerous Liaison.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[clifford_thornton]

I have this set on LP and enjoy it, though not one I dig out a ton. The photo of Monk is cool and I get why it was used... at this point the film probably has less selling power than the soundtrack's contents. 

[Teasing the Korean]

24 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

I have this set on LP and enjoy it, though not one I dig out a ton.

Did the LP come with a download card?  There is actually a very good album hiding in there; you just have to program it yourself.  

[clifford_thornton]

I can't remember -- generally if I have something on LP I don't bother with a digital version.

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, clifford_thornton said:

I can't remember -- generally if I have something on LP I don't bother with a digital version.

In this case, I would argue that you need a digital version to program a satisfying album.  

For example, why three versions of "Pannonica" in a row on disc 1?  Also, the 45 version of "Light Blue" on disc 2 is much more satisfying than the 2-minute version on disc 1.  

They also could have fit the whole thing on a single CD if they omitted the 14-minute "Making of Light Blue."  

Edited January 3, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[clifford_thornton]

well, satisfying is in the ear of the beholder.

[jlhoots]

I like the music & the "album" cover just fine.

[bertrand]

10 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

In this case, I would argue that you need a digital version to program a satisfying album.  

For example, why three versions of "Pannonica" in a row on disc 1?  Also, the 45 version of "Light Blue" on disc 2 is much more satisfying than the 2-minute version on disc 1.  

They also could have fit the whole thing on a single CD if they omitted the 14-minute "Making of Light Blue."  

Agreed, this should have been a single CD, although they left off some other tracks.

[Teasing the Korean]

8 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

well, satisfying is in the ear of the beholder.

Well, you said you didn't spin it much.  I am simply suggesting that the presentation may be a stumbling block for you.  It certainly was for me.

[jazzbo]

I have the cd set, which I bought because I didn't think I'd get a chance at the LP set, which I did get at a great price.

I have no complaints. I don't spin either that often, but that's because there is so f'in' much to listen to.

[clifford_thornton]

5 hours ago, jazzbo said:

I have no complaints. I don't spin either that often, but that's because there is so f'in' much to listen to.

that's kinda where I am at. I have around 10,000 LPs and CDs to choose from and only so many hours in a day.

[mjazzg]

6 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

that's kinda where I am at. I have around 10,000 LPs and CDs to choose from and only so many hours in a day.

Yep, considering a cull soon. No more room.

[jazzbo]

39 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

that's kinda where I am at. I have around 10,000 LPs and CDs to choose from and only so many hours in a day.

I have about four times your problem, and luckily retired so a few more hours a day.

[Teasing the Korean]

Because I'm into film scores and French music, I often think to reach for either Coltrane's Le Chat Dans Le Sac or any of the three albums called Les Liaisons Dangereuses.  I file them in the French section.

Edited January 4, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[clifford_thornton]

4 hours ago, jazzbo said:

I have about four times your problem, and luckily retired so a few more hours a day.

[jazzbo]

Yeah, it's a lot.

[Gheorghe]

I don´t have 10.000 CDs or LPs, maybe I have more than 1000, I didn´t count them, and even on those I have some I wouldn´t listen to often, since once in the past I made the "mistake" to try to collect classic BN and Prestige recordings, but don´t have to listen to each Lee Morgan album on BN and each Coltrane album on Prestige, I´ll always go back to one ore two that was key experiences for me . 

And as a busy man I probably have one hour the day to listen to music. If it´s a CD set of two CD,s I might listen to the second CD the next day....

Among those who used to play when I was younger and still played a handful of gigs before the pandemia, I even think that I am the one who has the most LP´s CDs, most fellow musicians have less. They listen more to live music when they don´t play. 

So it´s much easier for my wife to find something I still don´t have, you know, for Birthday, for Chrismas....

She saw that Monk Deluxe Edition with the French Title at "EMI Columbia" in the first district of Vienna and was sure I might like it, since she knows about my admiration for Monk. 

So I like it most for the addition of Barney Wilen and the great playing , both group and solo. 
I close my eyes and listen to the fantastic playing of Charlie Rouse on "Rhythm" with that gimmick of Gb B E A D G C F Bb in the A section instead of the regular rhythm changes. That´s something I really like and do myself also. 

And I imagined how "Blue Light" might have sounded, if Monk would have played in the 70´s and would have been open to some rock beats like Diz was during that time. 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Gheorghe

[Daniel A]

Sometimes I try to imagine how it would have turned out if Monk did a series of trio albums for MPS in the early 70s.

[Gheorghe]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

Sometimes I try to imagine how it would have turned out if Monk did a series of trio albums for MPS in the early 70s.

Wasn´t MPS that label, who recorded so much Oscar Peterson in the early 70´s ? 

Monk again trio.....well sure , but that´s something he did already. 

But I imagine that if Monk wouldn´t have all those psychical problems, phases of deep depression and having got rid of playing....., I mean if he would have been more optimist, he could have remainded at CBS and try to combine his style with a little up to date to reach other, newer audiences. 

I once heard that after the 1969 Big Band recording they wanted him to play an album of Beatles tunes. Well I can understand that he didn´t want it. 
I also never was a Beatles fan (olders tell me that being 1959 born I am too young for it), but I bet if you asked me to play "Yesterday" (anyway the only Beatles Tune I know ad hoc) it would sound like if Monk did it. That´s somehow a habit of mine, if I play solo at home and someone askes me to play "this and that" , what I normally don´t play, it will be in a Monk style because it seems that his harmonies are very logic for me and the fingers hit the keys just that way, out of instinct. 

My wife loves the way I play and sometimes out of fun she askes me to play a non jazz tune she would like, just to hear how it sounds if I play it. 

So she says "Play Hildegard Knef´s song "Roses raining" or how you say it in english, and a new "Monk ballad" is born ......I chose to play it in Db, sounds nice....

She say´s play something classical: The only classical tune I manage to play somehow out of memory is a certain Valse of Chopin in Ab, and sure it sounds in a more deliberate Monk manner. 

If someone comes by around Chrismas time, she says "Play Oh Tannenbaum", and it becomes a Monkish Chrismas in Ab, since it sounds too square in C...

I say, it would have been nice to hear a more healthy and happy Monk augmenting his group maybe with someone like Larry Corryell, Stanley Clark, Al Foster and an interesting sax player of the 70´s , most of all Dave Liebman, or Gary Bartz or so on, and of course percussion also....

Look, Mingus also made a step into fusion by using Larry Coryell, John Scofield, percussion and so on, and even an encounter with Stanley Clark was planned before he died..., so it IS possible to make certain compromises and fulfill the demands of a good paying major label without giving up your music..... 

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, Daniel A said:

Sometimes I try to imagine how it would have turned out if Monk did a series of trio albums for MPS in the early 70s.

I imagine the album with Oliver Nelson as a Monk MPS album, and it is not a huge stretch of the imagination!

I am apparently the only person on the planet who loves that album, incidentally.

[Daniel A]

Well, I like more than half of it. 

I don't really warm to Teo Macero's groove tune. 

54 minutes ago, Gheorghe said:

Wasn´t MPS that label, who recorded so much Oscar Peterson in the early 70´s ? 

Well, it was, but that doesn't define the MPS label for me. As it was, they recorded a range of different pianists, from Milt Buckner, George Shearing, Hampton Hawes to George Gruntz, Martial Solal and Wolfgang Dauner, as well as other groups ranging from swing-era to free-ish. However, sound and vinyl quality (for German pressings) was mostly stellar. 

[Teasing the Korean]

5 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

Well, I like more than half of it. 

I don't really warm to Teo Macero's groove tune. 

I hate Macero's ballad.  Monk plays it like he's mad at it.

At any rate, if you lose the two Macero tunes and reinstate "Blue Monk," you have a solid album.  IMO.

[Big Beat Steve]

2 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Wasn´t MPS that label, who recorded so much Oscar Peterson in the early 70´s ?

Actually the Oscar Peterson sessions at the home/studio of HGBS were recorded between 1963 and 1968 but could only be released from 1968 onwards after Oscar Peterson's contract with Verve had run out.

[Daniel A]

He recorded for HGBS up to 1971, I think, so it was mostly 1960s, that's true.