If you want to understand where modern jazz began, this two disc, 38 song set featuring bebop pioneer Thelonius Monk is where you want to start. His melodies, harmonies, rhythms and all out “weirdness” defined the bebop movement. His playing was the foundation for everything that followed, and his compositions are still the template for artists up to this very day.
His first recordings were made on78rpm records, coalesced in 1951 into long playing record albums and serve as the bedrock of modern jazz. The members of his band included the likes of Art Blakey/dr, Milt Jackson/vib, Sahib Shihab/as and Gene Ramey/b, and include classics like festive “I Mean You” and “Well You Needn’t” as well as the eternally haunting “’Round About Midnight” and reflective “Ruby My Dear”. He later formed a working trio with Blakey and Gary Mapp/b, resulting in a pair of albums that included the train-like “Little Rootie Tootie” and soon to become standards “Sweet and Lovely” and ”Bemsha Swing”. An album with a young Sonny Rollins/ts and Julius Watkins/fhr is a joy, with “Think Of One” and Friday The 13th” simply explosive. A front line of Frank Foster/ts and Ray Copeland/tp ranges from gauntlet throwing “Hackensack” to the standard “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” before Monk strips back to trio form on a perfect read of his own ‘Blue Monk’ to the reflective “Just A Gigolo” and closing with elliptical solo reads of “Off Minor” and “Eronel”. This is still as fresh as this mornings croissants from the local bakery.