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Post by nicknick on Oct 19, 2017 13:58:07 GMT
A fragment from the latest Wadada Leo Smith's CD: Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk (TUM Records, 2017)
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Post by alunsevern on Oct 25, 2017 18:18:50 GMT
I was up early this morning and after breakfast and a shower I found myself with time to spare. It was still dark and I put on my headphones and played the first three tracks of side two of Monk's ALONE IN SAN FRANCISCO on an old Fontana/Interdisc licensed pressing. This has to be one of Monk's most haltingly lovely and gently melancholy records. People will know the context I imagine. In SF to play the Blackhawk, Monk was travelling alone -- unescorted on this occasion (not looked after, one might probably accurately say) by his beloved Nellie, who was at home recovering from a serious operation. I'll sneakily use LJC's own picture: Of course, LJC's copy is a 1959 Riverside (damn him), and he covers it HERE. Anyway, it is a glorious record and as I finally left the house, I was still whistling quietly to myself and have been in a better than usual mood all day...
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Post by nicknick on Oct 25, 2017 18:47:58 GMT
Alun, Monk played with his sextet at the Blackhawk, SF in April 1960. "Alone in San Francisco" was recorded at Fugazi Hall, SF in October 1959. No Monk's gigs were at the Blackhawk that autumn.
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Post by alunsevern on Oct 26, 2017 13:03:39 GMT
Hmmm... Orrin Keepnews's sleeve notes say: ..."it might also be relevant that Thelonious had just had to leave his wife behind him in Los Angeles recuperating from major surgery: and that the first recording session came the afternoon after the opening night of his engagement at the Black Hawk -- when, due to varied confusions not Oto his making, Thelonious had been the only member of his quartet on hand for the first two sets." Do any of the various Monk books that have been mentioned here help throw any light on this? LATER: I'll see if I have a convincing answer to my own question about Monk and the Black Hawk.... The simplest answer is that Keepnews is simply mistaken, and has muddled his dates up. But here's another possibility. I noticed in the sleeve notes to the two-fer reissue of the town hall and Black Hawk concerts (it's called IN PERSON) that the author of the sleeve nots says that initially there had been a plan to record a set of Monk with Shelly Manne rather than Billy Higgins, but that because there wasn't a vacant recording studio, Keepnews - who was in charge of the recording - set up a session using the Black Hawk club. The recording didn't go a ahead, apparently, because there was no real chemistry between Monk and Manne. Now Manne was at the BLack Hawk for four nights in Sept 1959 (and was recorded of course). So is it possible that when Keepnews refers to Monk at the Black Hawk what he actually means is not for the set that eventually was recorded in 1960 but for a trial run with Manne - a stab at a recording that never happened? - - - - Right now, I'm listening to the set in question, TM Quartet + 2 at the Black Hawk, on a Distribution Carriere Milestone two-fer from 1976, remastered by David Turner at Fantasy Studios, Berkely, CA., and bloody good it sounds too. It's a slight exaggeration but if it wasn't for these 70s jazz reissues I almost wouldn't have any records at all....
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Post by nicknick on Oct 26, 2017 17:47:20 GMT
Alun, it seems I was wrong but not completely wrong. Hereinafter I refer to Robin D.G. Kelly's book Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (2009), Chapter 20 (January 1959 - October 1959), page 276: Nellie was still hospitalized when Thelonious left for San Francisco, where he was scheduled to open at the Blackhawk Club on October 20. Then on page 277: By sheer coincidence, Orrin Keepnews was in town to record Cannonball Adderley's quintet at the Jazz Workshop the same week Monk opened at the Blackhawk. Keepnews wanted to make the best use of his stay so he proposed recording another solo piano album as a follow-up to Thelonious Alone. For the session, Keepnews secured Fugazi Hall, a 400-set auditorium originally built in 1912 as a meeting hall for San Francisco's North Beach community. The acoustics were spectacular, and the huge crystal chandeliers gave it an "old school" quality. Thelonious did the rest - he came prepared with a repertoire of ten songs and recorded all but one in a single take.
So there were Monk's gigs at the Blackhawk that autumn. On page 276 Kelly writes that ... on opening night, Monk was the only member of his band to show up on time. He ended up using local subs - Brew Moore on tenor, Dean Riley on Bass, and drummer/percussioninst Willie Bobo. The next night Butler, Kahn, and Rouse were in place and things began to feel normal. The band came to life.
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Post by gregorythefish on Oct 26, 2017 18:22:54 GMT
nicknick, i was just about to pull that section of the book up, myself. great work!
no chemistry between monk and manne? that's a bummer. i love shelly manne. he could play anything!
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Post by alunsevern on Oct 26, 2017 19:55:02 GMT
Aha - I wondered whether Kelly's book might offer an answer. THank you.
I believe that the one 'new' tune Monk produced for the ALONE IN SF set - Round Lights - was indeed inspired by the chandeliers,,which I think Keepnews says were in the process of being removed and were spread around on the floor in large quantities...
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Post by nicknick on Oct 26, 2017 20:01:11 GMT
Kelly mentions that, indeed, the piece "Round Lights" was named for the Fugazi's chandeliers.
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Post by alunsevern on Oct 27, 2017 9:36:04 GMT
Last Tuesday I was in the sky somewhere between LAX and SVO, and when I came back to earth I was a bit puzzled that nobody noted here such an important event. Well, better late than never. I try to collect as much Monk's records as I can, and I never get tired of listening to them. I think my favorite Monk's LP ever is Solo Monk (Columbia, 1965).
nick -- Who's Afraid Of etc... Am I right in thinking that this consists of the Hall Overton (Town Hall) arrangements, plus the Oliver Nelson arrangements originally released as THELONIOUS SPHERE MONK: MONK'S BLUES? Or is it something else entirely?
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Post by nicknick on Oct 27, 2017 10:52:33 GMT
ALun, please see my reply to Sztiv of 14th October, it repeats the same you wrote above.
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Post by alunsevern on Oct 27, 2017 14:17:41 GMT
Thanks - I somehow missed that. And you confirm what I thought too. Many thanks.
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Post by nicknick on Nov 13, 2017 12:39:23 GMT
Leslie Gourse in his book Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk (1997) writes that somewhere in the middle of 50s Timothy Leary invited Thelonious Monk to his home after a gig. Then Gourse quotes Monk's account about the visit: He gave me some mushrooms to take and see what happened. He took a couple and get stoned. I took the whole jar, and it didn't shit to me.
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Post by nicknick on Nov 15, 2017 16:31:59 GMT
Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Monk (CBS/Sony, 1981) LP Japan. Normally I try to avoid compilations but this beautiful LP in The Great Jazz Collection series has fascinated my heart mostly due to the photo on the front cover (photographer Yuzoh Satoh). It includes tracks from Monk's Dream (Columbia, 1963), Monk (Columbia,1964), and Straight, No Chaser (Columbia, 1967). Of course, Japanese compilation couldn't omit Japanese Folk Song (Kōjō no Tsuki) by Rentarō Taki). An author of the drawing with a misterious elephant on the rear cover is Yuko Kuroda (no any information about him in the Web except that he also contributed a couple of similarly misterious drawings for covers of Miles Davis Vol. 1 (CBS/Sony, 1981) and Miles Davis Vol. 2 (CBS/Sony 1981) LPs released in the same series.
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Post by nicknick on Nov 16, 2017 19:58:56 GMT
nick -- Who's Afraid Of etc... Am I right in thinking that this consists of the Hall Overton (Town Hall) arrangements, plus the Oliver Nelson arrangements originally released as THELONIOUS SPHERE MONK: MONK'S BLUES? Or is it something else entirely? Alun, HERE is Marc Myers' yesterday post on the topic.
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Post by nicknick on Nov 20, 2017 11:56:09 GMT
Ben Riley (1933-2017) R.I.P.
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