Consumer Guide Album

Thelonious Monk: Standards [Columbia, 1989]
Released more than three decades ago and only purchased by me when I was buckling down to the longish 2009 Monk essay I dubbed "Not So Mysterioso," this Sony cherrypick comprises 10 Monk nonoriginals, only a few Tin Pan Alley fare on a par with closers "Nice Work if You Can Get It" and "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea." But in the mood for subclassic Monk one evening, I pulled it out four or five days before I decided I had to write this one up and have played it every day since. The material is mostly solo or quartet stuff, with Monk's longtime sax man Charlie Rouse stepping in here and there, and, right, this very "Tea for Two" was on our wedding tape 50 years ago. But at least half the selections aren't in my pop recall memory the way "Nice Work" and "Deep Blue Sea" are, and it turns out that this doesn't matter in the slightest. It's by no means on a par with, say, Misterioso, one of my favorite albums ever. And true, it tinkles more than it bangs. But when I feel like some Monk less complex and demanding than, say, Brilliant Corners, it's sure to come to mind. A+