I've watched this clip at least 100 times and somehow it keeps getting better!Monk used to say "Two is One". This is an example of "Four is One". This is the best group Thelonious ever had.If you built a car with a perfect engine,this is how it would run.This is the kind of music that gets me through life.It absolutely transcends crappy jobs,stupid people,inept and/or corrupt politicians,and the often idiotic lowlights of our modern culture.Anyway,thanks so much for posting this gem.Viva Monk!!
Was never a huge fan of Charlie Rouse, though he was serviceable for this kind of music. No way Monk could have hired Coltrane or Rollins to be his regular tenor player though. Steve Lacy would have been interesting but would probably have made Monk even harder to hire than he probably already was.
This piece is so complex yet these guys swing it with perfection. No metronome required for these cats...sheer perfection. Drum solo off the chain. Not enough words to describe the genius of Monk and this piece.
He was Always The " ONE " ☝🏽 and the Best Quote for the ages Comes from Charlie Parker himself, when He said , plainly that " The Monk Runs Deep! " 👈🏾AMEN to That‼️ 🙏🏾😔
Great upload!.. This group played two concerts in Melbourne in ‘63, and I went to both. First night was fine; though the town hall was only about half full. A friend of mine had a chance meeting with Monk next day in town, in a shoe shop, trying on shoes. My mate Barry said it looked like Monk was trying on every pair of shoes in the shop. Referring to the poor turnout the night before Barry asked Monk if maybe the town hall was too big a venue for this kind of music, and Monk replied that it’s not so much that the town hall was too big; the people were too small. Second night it was a different story. Standing room only and the music soared; the groove was out of this world.
thanks for sharing, jazz pianist here, one question: Monk's music seems to me quite advanced for the time back then. How do you explain the appeal he had (filling half a hall is a success), and what kind of appeal was it? --- also he made it to the Time mag cover....so there is definitively some mass appeal, but how come with a genius wizard like Monk?
you could tell that these brothas were really feeling themselves during this performance.look at the bassist and the drummers eyes during there solos.this is my first time seeing monk dance.lol.rouse is always laid back.love these cat.
FRANKIE DUNLOP IS SO KILLIN!! Holy crap. wish the camera men knew that there would be drummers 50 years from then who wanted to see what his hands were doing during his solo. smh killin
Thelonious Sphere Monk is one of the joys of my life. Charlie Rouse on sax always magic, marriage made in heaven. Wonderful. Craig Anderson Aberdeen Scotland
What a performance! Monks wit and originality on full display. Melodious Thunk! He says more with a pause than most piano players can with a hundred notes. They're all just grooving perfectly. And Dunlop! Monk is hardly a predictable player but Dunlop complements him beautifully no matter where he goes. And that solo! So melodic and yet the time is right on all the way through. Oh yeah and lets not forget his badass suit!
I love it when Monk gets up and strolls around like a man (genius) who’s had too much to drink! What a great piece though and great for improving rhythmic skill. Just great and what fun too . Cheered me up big time
Monk, the eccentric genius of his time, picks as side men relative unknowns but who are disciplined to the vicissitudes of this Monk classic - Evidence! and Thelonius Monk never gets boring or trite; it's still fresh today, and demands the best of its players.
Aaron Burr - Neither was Butch Warren or Frankie Dunlop btw! Butch Warren for the previous couple of years and most of 63, was the house bassist for Blue Notes records and was part of one the immortal rhythm sections of all time imo, with Sonny Clarke and Billy Higgins who played on many dates together. Unknown to you maybe but not to Jaxz scene then or real jazz aficionados today!
An example of classic musicianship that was considered the norm at the time of this performance...(1963) and to date, (2017), it still reigns as one of many master piece of the ages...there was only one Thelonius Monk...
WHAT A THRILL IT IS to see Thelonious enjoying the music so much he's dancing...!!! And, as ALWAYS, Charlie ROUSE is "blowing me away." There were NO greater interpreters of Monk's music than Charlie ROUSE and John COLTRANE. I would have LOVED to hear MONK and Eric DOLPHY on record together...but I don't think it EVER happened. What a GAS it would have been to hear DOLPHY interpret MONK.
+roberttaylorcurryii Hi,I am so Lucky to have seen Monk in concert at Amsterdam; both with Charlie Rouse..and one time with Franky Dunlop and the other time with Benny Baily on drums...both concerts where great...!!. I have a nice picture of Monk at the piano that will be used as coverphoto for my forthcomming jazz photobook: "My Jazz Moments"; incl. photos of J.,Coltrane, Ben Webster, Kenny.Clarke, Bill Evans, Art Blakey, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Johnny Griffin....etc, etc.
Stunning performance, great tune. Charlie Rouse and Monk are the best sparing partners, and Dunlop's solo is just amazingly lyrical (you can almost hear the melody in this drum solo!). Genius.
Superbly recorded video of my favorite of Monk's quartets. Cameras were always in the right place, and both sound quality and sound mix are very good. I was lucky enough to hear Monk at the Plugged Nickel in Chicago a few years later. It was an evening I'll never forget.
This tune is sophisticated. Monk is pure genius! He gave jazz pizazz and a style that truly and uniquely represents his creativity and left brain approach to the art.
I was 9 when this was recorded...I still find it hard to believe there were people making this amazing music way back then...Monk's work is outstanding...
Trying to choose between Ben Riley and Frankie Dunlop is like trying to choose between your favourite flavour of Ben & Jerry's, or between your favourite blonde or brunette, or between...... {sigh} Great video, many thanks! Cheers, PtPP
Hi y’all! I wonder (cos I just do) how many people in our beautiful world listen today to Mr T.S. Monk on a fairly regular basis, so as to commune with this natural wonder…and out of those, how many are women or girls?
an amazing -- luckily recorded and filmed -- performance. Watching Monk dancing from ± 2:30 to the end of Charlie Rouse's incandescent solo is unforgettable. The music is INOLVIDABLE !!!
Maynard G Krebs brought me here. Er.. sometime back in the 50s. Man, I am so grateful to that cat for that. RIP guy who wrote Maynard into the Dopey Gillis show and founded a race of jazz loving beatniks who stayed on the path from thence to now. Yeah.
