Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins

Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
Studio album by
Thelonious Monk
Released1957[1]
RecordedNovember 13, 1953
September 22, 1954
October 25, 1954
StudioWOR, NYC, and Van Gelder, Hackensack, NJ
GenreJazz
Length34:02
LabelPrestige
ProducerBob Weinstock, Ira Gitler
Thelonious Monk chronology
Monk
(1956) 		Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
(1957) 		Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington
(1956)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
DownBeat[3]
MSN Music (Expert Witness)A[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings[6]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[5]

Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins is a compilation album by jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and saxophonist Sonny Rollins released in 1956 by Prestige Records.[7] The tracks on it were recorded in three sessions between 1953 and 1954. While this is its original title, and its most consistent title in its digital re-releases, it was also released on Prestige as Work! (1959, PRLP 7169)[8] and The Genius of Thelonious Monk (1967, PR 7656),[9] with alternative covers.[10]

Background

The album is culled from the results of three recording sessions over a span of close to twelve months featuring different personnel. Although Rollins is credited as a co-leader on the album cover, he appears on only three of the album's five tracks. It was the final Monk release on Prestige before he moved to a contract with Riverside Records.

The track "Friday the 13th" was recorded in November 1953 with a quintet of Monk, Rollins, Julius Watkins, Percy Heath, and Willie Jones; the September 1954 recordings are of a trio with Monk, Heath, and Art Blakey; and the October 1954 session Monk and Rollins again with bassist Tommy Potter and drummer Art Taylor.[11] Of the three Monk originals, "Friday the 13th" was written in the studio during the recording session, released as a ten-minute jam to fill out the album's running time.[12] Monk would return to "Nutty" again and again through his career, but this was his only recording of the composition "Work."[13]

The recordings on this 12" LP originally appeared in 1954 on three 10" LPs: Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows for LP (Prestige PRLP 166), Thelonious Monk Plays (Prestige PRLP 189)[14] and Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk (Prestige PRLP 190).[15][16]

Chris Sheridan, in his book Brilliant Corners: A Bio-discography of Thelonious Monk, dates the first 12-inch vinyl release of Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (Prestige PRLP 7075) to 1956. Its release was immediately preceded in the Prestige 12-inch catalog of Monk's work by Thelonious Monk Trio (Prestige PRLP 7027), and Thelonious Monk, aka Monk (PRLP 7053).[17]

Track listing

All compositions by Thelonious Monk, except where indicated.

Side one

  2. "The Way You Look Tonight" (Dorothy Fields, Jerome Kern) – 5:13
  4. "I Want to Be Happy" (Irving Caesar, Vincent Youmans) – 7:43
  6. "Work" – 5:18

Side two

  2. "Nutty" – 5:16
  4. "Friday the 13th" – 10:32

Notes

  • Tracks 1–4 recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, NJ.
  • Tracks 1 and 2 recorded on October 25, 1954, and originally released in sequence as Side A of the 10" LP Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk (Prestige PRLP 190)[18][19]
  • Tracks 3 and 4 recorded on September 22, 1954, and originally released in sequence as Side A of the 10" LP Thelonious Monk Plays (Prestige PRLP 189)[20]
  • Track 5 recorded on November 13, 1953, at WOR Studios, New York City, and originally released as Side A of Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows for LP (Prestige PRLP 166)

Personnel

References

  1. ^ "Reviews and Ratings of New Jazz Albums," Billboard, April 6, 1957, p.27.
  2. ^ AllMusic Review
  3. ^ Wilson, John S. (January 7, 1960). "Thelonious Monk: Work". DownBeat. p. 38.
  4. ^ Christgau, Robert (December 21, 2012). "Thelonious Monk". MSN Music. Microsoft. Archived from the original on January 10, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
  5. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 145. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  6. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1021. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  7. ^ Sheridan, Chris, Brilliant Corners: A Bio-discography of Thelonious Monk, p 295, Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 2001
  8. ^ Sheridan, Chris, Brilliant Corners: A Bio-discography of Thelonious Monk, p 296, Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 2001
  9. ^ Sheridan, Chris, Brilliant Corners: A Bio-discography of Thelonious Monk, p 296, Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 2001
  10. ^ Neely, Tim, Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records, 1950-1975, 5th Edition p. 844, Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 2006
  11. ^ Thelonious Monk discography accessed 23 April 2012
  12. ^ Robin D.G. Kelley. Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. New York: Free Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4391-9046-3, p. 165.
  13. ^ Kelley, Life and Times, pp. 569–571.
  14. ^ Kelley, Life and Times, p. 179–180
  15. ^ Sheridan, Chris, Brilliant Corners: A Bio-discography of Thelonious Monk, p 295, Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 2001
  16. ^ "Five Thelonious Monk albums remastered and reissued in new 10" box set". October 31, 2017.
  17. ^ Sheridan, Chris, Brilliant Corners: A Bio-discography of Thelonious Monk, p 295, Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 2001
  18. ^ Sheridan, Chris, Brilliant Corners: A Bio-discography of Thelonious Monk, p 295, Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 2001
  19. ^ "Five Thelonious Monk albums remastered and reissued in new 10" box set". October 31, 2017.
  20. ^ Kelley, Life and Times, p. 179–180
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