I'd go along with this, not just a great Rouse recording but a great recording full stop. Rouse and Shihab play fantastically together. Two guys who played with Monk, plus Davis who made a pretty decent Monk tribute album (no mean feat that- like Mahler cycles everbody and his dog has had a go).
My feelings about Rouse with Monk have been pretty consistent, he doesn't make me sit up and take too much notice of what he is up to, but he was excellent at keeping the music together and I think the perfect choice for Monk's working band.
As far as I recall (Kelley mentions this in his bio I think), Monk was impressed with Rouse back when Rouse was still with Ellington and a journeyman horn player scratching a living. Miles Davis opined that Rouse was one of the few hornmen that sounded good with Monk and knew how Monk operated musically. To me that makes sense. Davis would never hire Rouse in a million years but he understood that it's not always about having a star player in every position. Griffin, Coltrane, Harold Land and Gerry Mulligan never had anything to fear from Rouse as a player but they were never going to be permanent Monk employees. Rouse was a perfect fit for Monk's working band, and since making gigs was what kept food on the table (possibly Monk's paramount concern, after years of relative privation) Rouse seems a sensible choice.
Doing him down as inadequate technically compared to the more storied hornmen who worked with Monk is kind of kicking at an open door. Rouse was good, not great and good enough for Monk and good enough for me. Away from Monk, a different and very interesting proposition.
Monk was no mug when it came to picking musicians, thay had to be good enough to get his music and play it, and reliable enough to make the gig so that Monk got paid.