Monk's Music (20 Bit Mastering) [Original recording remastered]
Monk's Music (20 Bit Mastering) [Original recording remastered]
ASIN: B00005R8DD
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Simply stated, this remastered CD contains some of the most memorable interpretations of Monk's music ever recorded. The original cover of Monk sitting in a little red wagon reminds us that, in 1957, he was still considered eccentric by the mainstream. The presence of elder statesman Coleman Hawkins in the horn section (along with John Coltrane and Gigi Gryce), however, indicated that the transition to bebop was now complete. Versions of well-known Monk compositions "Well, You Needn't," "Epistrophy," and "Off Minor" are played with a spirited flourish, with the occasional misstep only making the overall effect even more exciting. Though not fluent, Hawkins nonetheless proves himself conversant with the new vernacular, Coltrane blows with increasingly confident brio, and Monk's playing throughout is exceptional. --Wally Shoup
Monk's Music (20 Bit Mastering),Thelonious Monk,Riverside,Jazz,Jazz Music,Pop
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Curtains (2007 Original Broadway Cast)
Manufacturer: Manhattan Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000PC1QKQ Release Date: 2007-06-05 |
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Sadly, Curtains is the final entry in the long and fruitful partnership of lyricist Fred Ebb (who died in September 2004) and composer John Kander. While the show doesn't reach the heights of the team's previous masterpieces, such as Cabaret and Chicago, it's certainly a lot better than, say, their middling 1997 offering Steel Pier. Deliberately old-fashioned (it even features a real overture, something that's fast becoming a rarity), Curtains is a whodunit rolled into a musical--or vice versa. Set in 1959 Boston, it takes place backstage at a singing-and-dancing Western corker titled Robbin Hood. Someone gets killed, and a show tunes-crazy homicide detective (David Hyde Pierce) is called in. The plot is just a pretext for a series of very entertaining, characteristically brass-heavy songs that may not have the bite of old Kander and Ebb but are still very catchy. Above all, Curtains is (both thematically and stylistically) a love letter to old-school showbiz, and it's delivered on a silver platter by a cast of pros that includes the aforementioned Hyde Pierce, Kander and Ebb habituée Karen Ziemba, endearing Jason Danieley and, a notch above the rest, Debra Monk. Unsurprisingly, she chews the scenery and spits it right back in a pair of rowdy numbers: "Show People" and "It's a Business." --Elisabeth VincentelliAlbum Description
Curtains is an entertaining play within a play, as well as a "whodunit" new musical comedy featuring one of the last scores by legendary, Tony Award-winning songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago, New York, New York). Starring David Hyde Pierce (Spamalot, "Frasier") and Debra Monk, the Curtains original Broadway cast album is produced by nine-time Grammy Award-winner Jay David Saks.
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Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
Thelonious Monk , and John Coltrane Manufacturer: Blue Note Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000AV2GCE Release Date: 2005-09-27 |
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Amazon.com
Every year sees a crop of newly found jazz gems, but rarely are listeners treated to anything as special as this 1957 concert recording of Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, which was accidentally discovered in an unmarked box by a Library of Congress engineer early in 2005. Until now, fans could only dream of hearing these two immortals play together beyond the three studio tracks they left behind. But here they are, hitting their stride at an all-star benefit concert, basking in the chemistry they had developed in Monk's quartet during the preceding weeks at New York's Five Spot. Coltrane's playing is a revelation. He's both an inspired accompanist and a galvanizing soloist, taking the music to new heights with his bold, brilliantly challenging, and sometimes jaw-dropping phrases, note clusters, and blasts of power. Sharing with Coltrane a newfound sense of freedom following the personal and professional troubles that had plagued them both, Monk is clearly tickled to be in the tenorist's presence, injecting humorous commentaries and otherwise asserting his eccentric genius as a pianist. The material, which was very well recorded by the Voice of America, includes Monk classics like "Epistrophy," "Monk's Moods," and "Evidence," as well as a striking rendition of the standard "Sweet and Lovely." This is music that not only bears repeated listenings, but also demands them--the ultimate definition of a classic. --Lloyd Sachs
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Angel Voices
Manufacturer: EMI Classics ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000IHY9QG Release Date: 2006-10-25 |
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There's very little to say about this recording of ethereally beautifully singing by the 24 young English lads who make up the group Libera. Enormously popular in Asia, the group is part of a parish choir in South London that has been around for many years, with of course, changes in personnel as voices change. There are a couple of pieces here by well-known composers--Pachelbel, Sibelius, Holst, Dvorak--but to their music have been added words and, of course, it's all been "arranged." Texts, translations from Latin, and arrangements as well as original music are by Robert Prizeman, the choir's director, and some of the numbers are accompanied by quiet synthesizers, organ, and/or drums. There is something new-age about this project and some might find the effect syrupy, while others might long for the "real" thing, that is, boys with this talent singing some Renaissance or later music that is not designed simply as balm for the ears. But for what it is--a perfectly pitched choir with some outstanding solo work as well, singing easy-to-listen to short numbers--this is just lovely. --Robert Levine
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Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane Manufacturer: Ojc ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000000Y2F Release Date: 1991-07-01 |
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Amazon.com essential recording
Among Thelonious Monk's long stays at New York's legendary Five Spot was a six-month period in 1957 with possibly his most brilliant band, with John Coltrane finding fuel in Monk's music for his harmonic explorations. The quartet only recorded three studio tracks: a sublime reading of Monk's ballad "Ruby, My Dear"; a loping version of "Nutty"; and a stunning version of "Trinkle Tinkle" on which Trane's tenor mirrors Monk's piano part. The CD is completed with outtakes from an octet session that joined Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins and an extended solo version of "Functional." --Stuart Broomer
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Monk's Dream
Thelonious Monk Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00006GO99 Release Date: 2002-09-03 |
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Amazon.com essential recording
Thelonious Sphere Monk was 45 when he began work in 1962 on Monk's Dream, his first recording for a big mainstream label. Thus, the 8 tracks here, a mixture of Monk originals and standards, present the bop pianist at a career peak, documenting music that is both challenging and immediately accessible. Playing with his touring quartet, Monk makes each song his own, finding a typically quirky melody line within the romance of "Body and Soul" or the swing of "Bright Mississippi." Tenor saxman Charles Rouse adds some soothing horn soloing, but it's Monk's bright, intuitive playing that makes this a late bop milestone. Timeless. --Steve ApplefordAmazon.com
Originally released in early 1963, Monk's Dream was the first Thelonious Monk album for Columbia. At the time this was recorded (fist sessions on Halloween, 1962), he had become one of the preeminent figures in contemporary jazz. His move to Columbia put him in the company of a couple of the era's other major talents and commercial successes, Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck, and his quartet was stabilized for a couple years with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse (with him since 1958), bassist John Ore, and drummer Frankie Dunlop. This album set the format for his succeeding works for the label over the next half-dozen years: a few standards mixed with originals, most of which had been recorded earlier in his career (the only new composition is "Bright Mississippi," itself a variation on the chordal structure of "Sweet Georgia Brown"). However, these performances find Monk in exuberant good cheer. His playing sparkles with invention and the relaxation and calm of a career in well-deserved ascension. Critically under-celebrated in its day, Monk's Dream is rich with the confidence of a band at its peak. --David Greenberger
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World's Very Best Opera for Kids... in English!
Manufacturer: Children's Group ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0000C5ROP Release Date: 2003-09-23 |
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Praise to the Lord - Hymns From St. Paul's Cathedral
Manufacturer: Hyperion UK ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00002EIUG Release Date: 1999-10-12 |
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Brilliant Corners
Thelonious Monk Manufacturer: Ojc ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000000Y1H Release Date: 1991-07-01 |
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Amazon.com essential recording
Few composers or improvisers can match the originality of pianist Thelonious Monk. Quirky yet rigorously logical, Monk's playful but always purposeful choice of skewed melodies and interrupted rhythm patterns gave the bebop movement, and jazz in total, a new sound that was totally modern. Although he created a surprisingly limited body of compositions, his impact on the vocabulary and canon of jazz is second to none, including such prolific giants as Duke Ellington. Brilliant Corners is a triumph of both performance and conception: the two small-group sessions, anchored by Monk, drummer Max Roach, and the bass work of either Oscar Pettiford or Paul Chambers, feature superb front-line performances by saxophonists Sonny Rollins and the tragically under-recorded Ernie Henry, as well as trumpeter Clark Terry. The title track, which centers the collection, is one of Monk's most unconventional pieces, skirting whole-tone, chromatic and Lydian scales; a version of "Pannonica" finds Monk doubling on celeste, while the band stretches out on "Bemsha Swing" and the blues "Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are." --Fred GoodmanAlbum Description
Digitally remastered using K2 bit technology, this is a Japanese reissue of the great pianist's 1956 album for the Prestige label in a miniaturized LP sleeve limited to the initial pressing only. Five tracks. The All-Music Guide gave the album four & a haAlbum Details
Japanese Version featuring 20bit K2 Mastering and Limited Edition LP Style Slipcase for Initial Pressing Only.
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Straight, No Chaser
Thelonious Monk Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000002AD6 Release Date: 1996-08-27 |
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Album Description
The Definitive and Complete Straight, No Chaser!Thelonious Monk's fruitful tenure at Columbia Records resulted in several classic recordings, and coincided with having his portrait on the cover of Time magazine--a distinction bestowed on only five jazz artists.
Straight, No Chaser is undeniably one of those classics, and finds Monk in the good company of his long-time companions--Charlie Rouse, Larry Gales, and Ben Riley.
For this CD, reissue producer Orrin Keepnews has added approximately 25 minutes of never-before-heard Monk, meticulously re-editing lost portions of issued titles while discovering two complete, previously unissued performances.
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The Essential Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00008PX91 Release Date: 2003-04-01 |
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