Thelonious Monk - Plays Duke Ellington

Thelonious Monk Trio
Plays the Music of Duke Ellington
OJC 24 with Oscar Pettiford & Kenny Clarke

Like Money Jungle, the later collaboration between Duke Elllington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach, this collection of Ellingtonia showed how much a modernist the Duke really was. Without a doubt, Ellington is more clearly recalled as an architect of the Swing Era, but in Monk's hands, Ellington's tunes sound as pregnant with post-swing potential as anything in the bebop canal. Monk recorded these tunes at the request of Riverside Records founder Orrin Keepnews, who knew how idiosyncratic the pianist was, and rather than produce literal transcriptions, Monk went all over the map. Stride shades drop in amid the off-center melody statements. And shot throughout all the tunes is Monk's persistently interstitial approach, whereby he spots seams and creases in every phrase and then fills, comments on, and dances around them. As the first chapter, if you will, in the  Complete Riverside box set, this makes a great platform for viewing Monk's ascent into unbridled genius. --Andrew Bartlettfeatures; Oscar Pettiford & Kenny Clarke