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Thelonious Monk, Piano Solo, Paris 1954 - Centennial Edition


king ubu

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Okay, finally played this ... the opening banter by André Francis is ... ridicule ;) - he asks a first question that Monk can indeed fully answer with a "oui", second gets a "très, très", and then the Music starts ... not sure what you guys mean, I've not compared the Sound to the older Vogue Masters CD, is it the sound that has you hear with new ears or the mere fact that so far the album hasn't really gotten its due in your house? (For me, it has always been my favourite Monk solo rekkid, since, I guess, my mid-teens, so I've kinda lived with it for over 20 years.)

Anyway, the live material is indeed pretty good and makes the reissue more than worthwhile! The rhythm sections aren't anything to talk about, from what it says in the liner notes, they simply didn't have enough time to learn the Music, which at that time would have been brand new to anyone over in Europe, I assume? But Monk's playing is good, and reading the track-by-track account of that concert (or rather: very short festival set - if the liners are correct, #11-15 is the full set of that day, while #16 is prob. from one of the consecutive nights) is hilarious (I heard the Schlippenbach Trio last night and when they went into "Rhythm-a-Ning" Paul Lytton was so bored and so totally unswinging that I'm sure Monk would have gotten up and pointed his finger at him, too :g) - however, it's Alain Jean-Marie who wrote them? He would have been a kid at that time, so I wonder where these stories/observations really originate from?

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For me it also a long time favourite. In the late nineties/early 00s I always put the Vogue Solo Piano CD on repeat in my Discman when I went shopping for groceries at the busy local supermarket. I had just about every note on that album memorised. As a consequence, I have listened to it less often since.

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  • 2 months later...

Wow!! new Monk - was browsing my local music store (hardly ever do this anymore) - yes we do still have them in Australia (lot more vinyl than CDs these days)

& found this gem - thought they were alternate versions on initial glance but once home soon realised these bonus tracks are live. Must have missed this original thread.

Any new Thelonious material is always precious to me. Have the original material on a variety of releases.

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