Live at the Five Spot

Performer: Thelonious Monk
Engineer: Juanita "Naima" Coltrane
Producer: T.S. Monk; Michael Cuscuna
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Full performer name: The Thelonious Monk Quartet featuring John Coltrane. Personnel: Thelonious Monk (piano); John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Ahmed Abdul-Malik (bass); Roy Haynes (drums). Recorded live at the Five Spot, New York in the summer of 1957. Includes liner notes by Lewis Porter. Personnel: John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Thelonious Monk (piano); Roy Haynes (drums). Liner Note Author: Lewis Porter. Recording information: Five Spot, New York, NY (1957). Illustrator: Harry Roolaart. This recording made by Coltrane's first wife Naima, can hardly be classified as hi-fi, but it captures the incredible energy and power of Coltrane and Monk almost at the moment of inception for the young tenor innovator, who seems to be discovering his voice for the first time on the bandstand. The sound of joy and surprise is evident in his voluminous solos, and in Monk's more minimalist, rhythmically complex gestures, as the band (featuring the legendary drummer Roy Haynes) tears through five Monk standards in a manner which more than makes up for the aural deficiencies of the recording. A historic find that will thrill fans and scholars alike.

Entertainment Weekly (6/11/93, p.61) - "...this technically flawed treasure is a rare document of bop as a vocation of ethereal passion and wrath..." - Rating: A Q (7/93, p.110) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...the disc is a precious piece of documentation of a crucial gig...Coltrane is much wilder here than on the studio recordings the band made, where he sounded awed by Monk...Rough and ready, but essential..." Down Beat (4/93, p.40) - 4.5 Stars - Very Good Plus - "...a crudely taped 1957 set from their extended gig at New York's Five Spot has now come to light, and it makes the earlier releases sound tame....their recorded collaboration endures as a landmark in the development of modern jazz..." Musician (6/93, p.92) - "...a tactile experience; you can practically smell the bathroom through the smoky low-fi gloom...Monk's sense of space is so sublime, you can feel him dancing even when he lays out..."

Thelonious Monk, underappreciated at the beginning of his career in the 1940s, was eventually recognized as one of the most brilliant figures in modern jazz, with a piano and compositional style that began in a classic stride and then veered off, gloriously, into the stratosphere. In contrast to the more athletic exploits of many beboppers, Monk's idiosyncratic playing was filled with stark contrasts of rhythm, space, and harmony, as if he were carefully unveiling some ancient wisdom. His death in 1982 left a void in jazz that could never be filled. However, Monk's songs live on in his remarkable recordings, and his influence is continually present in the work of hundreds of contemporary musicians.

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