Thelonious Monk Quartet

• Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall [Blue Note, 2005] A

See Also:

• Art Blakey & Thelonious Monk
• Thelonious Monk
• Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins
• merge all

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall [Blue Note, 2005]
Funny ha ha and funny peculiar, Monk's startling block chords, disdain for the romantic arpeggio, and flat-out genius have long rendered him rock's favorite jazz pianist, and the spiritual ambition of Coltrane's endless sheets of sound left a deeper impression on hippiedom and its musical aftermaths than any other jazz. Both musicians were at some kind of peak the night of this miraculously unearthed 1957 performance, and though Coltrane was playing Monk, not Coltrane, his longing to bust out just adds dynamic tension. It's humbling to realize that if someone with a decent tape machine had captured another 50 minutes of this band's music . . . well, it would have been looser, the multi-artist concert format of this gig does provide formal discipline. But discard the bass and drum solos and it could have been almost as remarkable, ad infinitum to a never-to-be-determined point of satiety. A