thelonious monk john coltrane at carnegie hall

Simply put, this is an instant classic: 51 minutes of Monk and Coltrane playing together, at home in each other's company after having played together for four months. The music, which came from a Voice of America broadcast from Carnegie Hall, was improperly labeled and gave little indication of what it was: a definitive concert by two jazz giants with excellent sound. Larry Applebaum, a jazz specialist for the Library of Congress, came upon this recording by accident while digitally transferring the Library's catalog. Thus those who listen avidly to both Monk and Trane but missed their brief time working together could only really speculate about how great this band really was. The group's reputation rests mostly on its live performances at the Five Spot, of which only an amateur recording of poor quality exists, and the musicians only entered the studio once to record a handful of tracks. The first study of one of the most significant jazz releases of the twenty-first century, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall is essential reading for all jazz scholars, students, musicians, and fans.Thelonious Monk's quartet with John Coltrane was one of the greatest groups in the history of jazz, but most of us have only been able to take other people's word for it. Offering in depth analytical discussions of each composition, as well as Monk's and Coltrane's improvisational performances he provides insight into Monk's impact on Coltrane as he developed his signature 'e sheets of sound'e style, as well as into the influence of a strong side-man, like Coltrane, on Monk at his creative and professional peak. Most importantly Solis accounts for the music itself.

Because nearly a half century passed between when the recording was made and its public release, it is a particularly interesting lens through which to view jazz both as a historical tradition and as a contemporary cultural form. Taking a wide-ranging approach to the recording, Solis addresses issues of 'e liveness,'e jazz teaching and learning, enculturation, and historiography. In this book, Gabriel Solis provides an historical, cultural, and analytical study of this landmark recording, which was released by Blue Note records later in 2005. Long considered one of the most important musical meetings in modern jazz, Monk's and Coltrane's work together during a scant few months in 1957 had, until this discovery, been thought to be almost entirely undocumented. In early 2005, an engineer at the Library of Congress accidentally discovered, in an unmarked box, the recording of Thelonious Monk's and John Coltrane's performance at a 1957 benefit concert at Carnegie Hall.

Thelonious monk john coltrane at carnegie hall