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New Thelonious Monk album


ghost of miles

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11 hours ago, brownie said:

My copy (brand new!) comes from the secondhand section of my record store. It often sells discarded  copies that were used for records reviews.

The store does not carry the regular CDs yet.

We used to have a store in Portland that got a lot of those, but the used cd stores I go to seldom if ever have them. I guess I really need to move to Paris! :D

 

gregmo

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What is always odd to me is when I no longer receive service from a particular jazz label, then I find a current promo copy of one of their CDs in a local used bookstore. There aren't any jazz stations here and as far as I know, no one else who regularly writes about jazz in the area.

 

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Well, we DO have a jazz station (KMHD), so I'm somewhat surprised to see no promos in the bins. Maybe I just need to go more often! By the way, news from Amazon that my cd copy of this album has shipped. Looking forward to hearing it!

 

 

gregmo

Edited by gmonahan
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  • 5 weeks later...

I bought the CD version.  I especially love the versions of "Panonica" on this session for some reason. 

Given some of the track repetition, I am not sure that they needed to spread out the material to two CDs totaling 83 minutes, but whatevs.

The sound is excellent, though I wish the bass were centered. 

Don't like the packaging.  I would have preferred artwork based on the film. 

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I'm not very enthusiastic, all things considered ... it's a fine release, musically though, no doubt.

Points to quibble with:

- would have been nice to have the full sessions (they even created masters edited from two takes in one ore two cases - not including the original takes then)

- basically this is a listening edition, not a critical one - but the session is sketchy and the 83 minutes contain quite a few bits anyway, so why not give us the full package?

- there are  few quite long (3-4 minutes) breakdown takes omitted that I would have loved to hear

- the one included rehearsal is really just about Art Taylor giving his utmost to *not* get the beat that Monk wants him to play ... not all that intriguing

- there is not much with Barney Wilen, alas ... one track (no master, nothing included) was rehearsed with him (and Monk and Sam Jones), would have loved to hear it, even if it went nowhere

- the discography at the end is somewhat difficult to read (and difficult to relate to the tracklisting

 

But yeah, it's good, I will listen again, and some day I might sit down and read the extensive liner notes.

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On July 17, 2017 at 7:14 AM, king ubu said:

would have been nice to have the full sessions (they even created masters edited from two takes in one ore two cases - not including the original takes then)

- basically this is a listening edition, not a critical one - but the session is sketchy and the 83 minutes contain quite a few bits anyway, so why not give us the full package?

In my opinion, they should have made a "listening edition" that fit on one disc, under 80 minutes, and a deluxe set that had all the breakdowns and studio chatter.  Creating an incomplete two-disc, 83-minute version doesn't really accomplish either.  Still, the price was right, so it's a minor point.  The cover art bothers me the most. 

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1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

In my opinion, they should have made a "listening edition" that fit on one disc, under 80 minutes, and a deluxe set that had all the breakdowns and studio chatter.  Creating an incomplete two-disc, 83-minute version doesn't really accomplish either.  Still, the price was right, so it's a minor point.  The cover art bothers me the most. 

Yup. At least on CD offer the whole shebang. 

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Hi folks,

I don’t know what you think, but I'm still hungry. It is said that almost 3 hours have been recorded and we are given only 83 minutes. What will become of the remaining material? Will we have to wait another 58 years?

Meanwhile, most of us will have joined my late friend Marcel Romano (at the origin of the project) in the clouds.

Let him be thanked here for the music he has left us, but that some responsible (if we can call them that) deliver us in the dropper.

By what right?

Certainly, the law of the market.

I hate these music amateurs, more merchants than music lovers…:alien:

 

For all "amateurs" of complete stuff, I made a list of all material described in the booklet. Lined in yellow, the issued titles which last 83 minutes...

No comment!

LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES (détails).xlsx

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1 hour ago, Claude Schlouch said:

Hi folks,

I don’t know what you think, but I'm still hungry. It is said that almost 3 hours have been recorded and we are given only 83 minutes. What will become of the remaining material? Will we have to wait another 58 years?

Meanwhile, most of us will have joined my late friend Marcel Romano (at the origin of the project) in the clouds.

Let him be thanked here for the music he has left us, but that some responsible (if we can call them that) deliver us in the dropper.

By what right?

Certainly, the law of the market.

I hate these music amateurs, more merchants than music lovers…:alien:

 

For all "amateurs" of complete stuff, I made a list of all material described in the booklet. Lined in yellow, the issued titles which last 83 minutes...

No comment!

LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES (détails).xlsx

Thanks for your work Claude but if this is what is left, I'm stuffed, not hungry.

Don't need any breakdowns, thanks. I see six or seven complete takes most are under 90 seconds? and one is almost 7 minutes?

I'll take the seven minute track and I'd agree no reason not to put it on here.  

< 90 second tracks just reminds me this was conceived as a soundtrack, sounds like Monk with a muzzle on him to me.

 

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1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

Thanks for your work Claude but if this is what is left, I'm stuffed, not hungry.

Don't need any breakdowns, thanks. I see six or seven complete takes most are under 90 seconds? and one is almost 7 minutes?

I'll take the seven minute track and I'd agree no reason not to put it on here.  

< 90 second tracks just reminds me this was conceived as a soundtrack, sounds like Monk with a muzzle on him to me.

 

I agree with Dan.

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1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

Thanks for your work Claude but if this is what is left, I'm stuffed, not hungry.

Don't need any breakdowns, thanks. I see six or seven complete takes most are under 90 seconds? and one is almost 7 minutes?

I'll take the seven minute track and I'd agree no reason not to put it on here.  

< 90 second tracks just reminds me this was conceived as a soundtrack, sounds like Monk with a muzzle on him to me.

 

I'm a "completist", so the least note is important to me, especially when it comes from Barney Wilen who was my friend.

Edited by Claude Schlouch
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Email I sent to a friend:

Got the Monk soundtrack set the other day. Exceptionally vivid playing and very well recorded. Thanks for the nudge/tip. For some reason the album  left me feeling rather sad, though — perhaps it was the contrast between all that vividness, the number of years that have passed since then, and the fact that everyone, or virtually everyone, involved is no longer among the living.

 

 

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2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Dammit, Larry, I as on the fence about this one until I read "vivid". That pushed my trigger, order placed.

 Monk to me sounds here more like he did on Prestige than he did on Riverside, which to me is a big plus. Can it be primarily that Tom Nola's engineering and studio resemble  that of RVG versus that of Ray Fowler? Robin Kelley's account in the notes of the ups and down of Monk's life at the time do not suggest that he was likely to have been in a great mood, but he sure sounds ... vivid. Also, as Brian Priestley points out in his notes on the music, Rouse sounds very fresh here. Further, the team of Sam Jones and Art Taylor really takes care of business, especially SJ. 

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22 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Email I sent to a friend:

Got the Monk soundtrack set the other day. Exceptionally vivid playing and very well recorded. Thanks for the nudge/tip. For some reason the album  left me feeling rather sad, though — perhaps it was the contrast between all that vividness, the number of years that have passed since then, and the fact that everyone, or virtually everyone, involved is no longer among the living.

 

 

Hi Larry,

I felt the same melancholy when I listened to these two CDs for the first time and feel every time I listen to them again. It’s perhaps because this jazz evokes an era that we knew and which alas will never return. In short, our youth which went away...

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Youth does go away, but there is still life to be had! Get your affairs in order and ride like hell until the end, that's my philosophy.

Hell, my middle age is starting to slip away. I'm ready for my Old Years, and, maybe, my Elderly Final Act. That last one's the one that worries me, not because of what it represents, but because of all the many ways that things can go wrong. But otoh, if so, so be it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 7/17/2017 at 6:14 AM, king ubu said:

- the one included rehearsal is really just about Art Taylor giving his utmost to *not* get the beat that Monk wants him to play ... not all that intriguing

That for me is the most fascinating part of this fascinating issue. I mean, AT really does seem to not want to get it, either that or else he was so locked in to thinking just one way about time that this simple yet non-standard pattern just fucked him up altogether.

The whole thing is interesting, though. Tempos are a little different, Monk's comping is REALLY interesting (even by his standards), Sam Jones in general, even Rouse sounds, for lack of a better word, fresh.

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