Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane

I recommend this album to all jazz fans. I find it so cool when jazz geniuses play together. Ella and Louis, Ellington and Coltrane, Bird and Diz, just to name a few. This is your chance to experience Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, two people who were not widely known as geniuses in 1957, but would emerge to be some of the most legendary jazzmen ever. There may only be 3 songs where the Thelonious Monk Quartet features Coltrane on tenor sax, but in them is so much creativity and superb musicianship.


Lyrically speaking, a perfect Ten!   March 14, 2003
templecola (Long Beach, CA United States)
52 out of 53 found this review helpful

In the Fifties, jazz artists like John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk were among a handful of musicians who shaped the future of modern American music for several decades. The fact that they played together and that their sessions at The Five Spot Cafe were recorded is nearly a miracle, since they were under contract to different record labels. They both appear on another record ( Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants- Prestige LP 7150 ), but they don't play together! So this disc is the sole representation of their musical collaboration.

Ruby My Dear shows the young 'Trane playing mostly in the upper register of his tenor sax, with much vibrato, punctuating the sentiment in the tune. We can hear instantly the facility with which he deals with Monk's harmonic structure in this poignant ballad. Ironic piano solos are commonplace for Monk, but here he is more straighforward, with a half chorus that veers away from the polysyllabic phrasing of 'Trane's tenor. Monk's comping under Coltrane's restatement of the melody is unobtrusively perfect!

On Nutty, Monk's solo echos lines that 'Trane has drawn, showing that the conversation between sax and piano is between equals. The high point of this disc is that Monk and 'Trane clearly speak each other's musical language. Over and over, you can hear the attention they pay to the phrasing of one another, such that they complement rather than compete.

Two of the tunes add several other horns, including Coleman Hawkins, who gives forth with a taut chorus on Off Minor. The drummer here is Art Blakey, whose touch is very different from Shadow Wilson, more cymbal oriented, except for the characteristic press rolls that add exclamation points to solos.

The disc ends with an unaccompanied piano solo -- Functional -- by Monk. It's very sad that there isn't a cellar in Lower Manhattan with a box of tape from other Five Spot session waiting to be discovered. This is the sort of music I never tire of hearing.


Let's be upfront here- if ya like the jazz, buy the album...   February 8, 2000
23 out of 24 found this review helpful

Okay, let's get started. This album is one of my very favorite jazz discs that I have laid ears upon. The disc starts out with "Ruby, My Dear," a very mellow ballad, done here wonderfully. The coyness of this track does not hint at what is to come.

The Monk standard "Trinkle, Tinkle" reminds a fellow of a lilting jaunt. A lilting jaunt through where, you ask? You decide, but I get the feeling Monk had some sort of chase scene in mind. And Trane pulls off a killer solo as well. I dig it.

"Off Minor" has an almost humorous bounce to it, envigorating. Makes me laugh, and no one says a word.

The next track, "Nutty" is just that. The tune's expositionary sequence is very carefree in sound, gliding one into a mellow groove. And then along came Trane. Let's just say he adds a frenetic energy to the track with his solo. Hence the title, I suppose.

"Epistrophy." My fav Monk tune. And here, he just happens to be jammin' with Coltrane. Wow. I love this one because it is so richly mysterious. Almost haunting. On Trane's solo, the tension created by the space in between his bursts of chords gives this song another dimension of sound, more extreme than Monk's other versions.

Closing the disk is a 9 and a half minute piano solo by Monk titled "Functional." Thinly bluesy in nature, this tune is as beautiful and fun as any solo I have heard on piano. I am not sure how many hands Monk really has. But one thing for sure, we got two genius minds on the same disc.


Two Misunderstood Jazz Geniuses in Perfect Sync   July 27, 2001
G B (Connecticut)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

In 1957, eccentric piano genius Thelonious Monk was on the verge of breaking into the jazz mainstream. He formed a quartet featuring tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, another musician who was no stranger to controversy. Their legendary collaboration (and gigs at the Five Spot Cafe) only lasted a few months, but the few recordings that it produced are classic. This studio CD (recently remastered in clear 20-bit sound) contains three great tunes by the Monk Quartet, two "leftovers" from the octet session (with Art Blakey and Coleman Hawkins) that produced _Monk's Music_, and a solo piano feature. All the tunes mix Monkish angularity with catchy melodies as only Monk could write them. It's hard to pick a favorite on an album this good, but if I have to: "Trinkle, Tinkle" really stands out for both Monk and Trane's playing (you can hear some of the earliest traces of his "sheets of sound") and Monk's unaccompanied playing on "Functional" is outstanding. But that's not to say that the tender playing on "Ruby, My Dear", or the octet versions of "Epistrophy" and "Off Minor" aren't fantastic in their own right. If you like this album, you must pick up the lower-fidelity recording of the band live at the Five Spot, as well as the aforementioned _Monk's Music_ album.


beautiful   December 13, 1999
N. Moeckel (Boulder, CO)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

this has got to be my favorite jazz recording. I'm not even going to try to describe it, you need to hear it for yourself but I would like to mention another disc that complements this one very well. It's called 'Live at the Five Spot Discovery!', and it's on blue note. It was recorded by Coltrane's wife late in the summer of 57, and features excellent live versions of trinkle tinkle and epistrophy as well as others. The sound quality is not as good as this disc, but listening to the two one after the other can be very rewarding. I've recommended 'Monk with Trane' to several people who haven't experienced much jazz, and while Monk can be rough starting point for a jazz collection, I think the material is good enough that it will win over anyone even slightly inclined to appreciate jazz if given a chance.