Album Reviews

The mid-sixties may not have been Monk’s most creative period but it was arguably his strongest and most focused both in the studio and onstage. If any jazz musician was poised to withstand the rock era it was Monk the performer and Monk the composer.

A live set culled from these six sets recorded to three track by an anonymous Columbia records staff engineer October 31st and November 1st 1964 at Los Angeles’ It Club probably wasn’t issued back then because so many other performances of the same material had already been released. The tapes certainly weren’t left in the can because either the performances or the recording quality were lacking!

In fact, edited versions of three of the tracks did make it onto Monk’s Misterioso album (Columbia CS 9216) issued shortly after the material was recorded and Columbia issued an edited two LP version of Live at the It Club (C2-38030) in the 1980s.

About a decade ago Columbia issues the complete and unedited Live at the It Club on a double CD set (C2K-65288) and now Mosaic returns to vinyl with this 4 LP set cut from Mark Wilder’s two channel analog mixdown from the original 3 track tapes.

I don’t know how you came to Monk or if you’re familiar at all, but for me it was the Columbia album Criss-Cross (CS 8838) issued in 1963 featuring John Ore on bass and the crisp Frankie Dunlop on drums. Monk’s humorous deconstruction of “Tea For Two” and his almost heavy-metal (before there was such a thing) rendering of the ballad “Don’t Blame Me” provide an invaluable roadmap to the artist’s heart and soul.

Here Larry Gales and Ben Riley replace Ore and Dunlop. They weren’t chosen for their button-down approach to jazz and by the time this set was recorded both were well invested in Monk’s musical game plan. Larry Gales’ long bass solo on set three’s opener on October 31st is nimble, understated and captures well Monk’s playfulness.

This completist set, which gives you every note of three sets per night for two nights includes six “Epistrophy” variants as Monk chose it as a set closer every time. Leaving in all of the various solos and giving you the six complete sets opens a window onto ‘60s jazz clubbing that’s difficult to otherwise obtain. Were you to sit nursing a gin and tonic or whatever, for an entire evening at the It Club, this is what you’d hear.

You’d also hear signature Monk tunes like “Blue Monk,” “Well You Needn’t,” “Bemsha Swing,” “Round Midnight,” “Evidence” and of course “Epistrophy,” played confidently as reliable set pieces, with Monk working easily and playfully around the comfortable edges of the tunes and so investing them with extra, straightforward energy and clarity.

Mark Wilder’s mix is on the dry, literal side, close to the instruments; less about club ambience and more about instrumental honesty and clarity. The drums are spread across an arc between the right speaker and phantom center channel, Rouse is mid-stage right while Monk is left-of-center stage. The talkative, raucous crowd can be heard in the background. Who says audience verbosity is a product of the cell phone age?

Monk fans should be delighted with this fine sounding set (except for the occasions where the musicians step back from the microphones), while the curious will find this a great (albeit expensive) intro to the wit and musical wisdom of one of jazz’s true originals. Excellent sound, great music and a unique window on two complete nights of performances so many years ago make this a set worth owning and enjoying often.