Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

CML call number: CD/JAZZ/Monk
Steve Futterman wrote in the New Yorker: "Jazz fans have long been obsessed with the pianist Thelonious Monk's short-lived 1957 band, which featured John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, and, while a handful of vibrant studio recordings exist, the quartet was never captured live. Or so it seemed. Then the archivist Larry Applebaum, working through tapes at the Library of Congress, stumbled upon a haphazardly marked Voice of America recording of a Carnegie Hall benefit concert. The astonishing results are now available. … From the first notes of the Carnegie Hall show … the chemistry between Monk and Coltrane is palpable. Monk, riding on a restrained swing groove laid down by the drummer Shadow Wilson and the bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, whittles his vinegary single notes and off-kilter runs down to a choice few; Coltrane, in contrast, attacks chord changes as if each note were money in the bank. His full-throated choruses on 'Blue Monk' and double-time charge on the standard 'Sweet and Lovely' are as exhilarating as they are prescient" ("Jazz Notes: Unburied Treasure," 10/3/05, p. 22).