Artiste: Thelonious Monk
Album: Criss Cross
Spotlight Track: Rhythm-A-Ning
Label: Columbia, Legacy
Catalog: CK 63537
Piano – Thelonious Monk
Bass – John Ore
Tenor Saxophone – Charlie Rouse
Drums – Frankie Dunlop
Engineer [Assistant] – Seth Foster
Mastered By – Mark Wilder
Producer [Original Recordings] – Teo Macero
Reissue Producer – Orrin Keepnews
Notes: 24-Bit digitally remastered
Yo people, wazz happenin’??
These past few months have been pretty hectic for me and usually in days when I’m up to the ears in activity, I tend to get into the trad-jazz frame of mind. Which brings me to one cat I’ve been wanting to review for a long while.. Thelonious Sphere Monk. Phoooo, whadda name folks! Fella with this kind of a name is bound to be mad.. and when I say mad.. I mean he’s bonkers to da yonkers y’all! No kidding. Musically, he is also MAD!! Along with Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Miles Davis, Monk is considered one of the “greats” in the post bop era and one of the most inventive piano players in any musical genre. He was perfect for modern jazz because his sound pressed the right buttons and his style was totally “avant garde”. Once you hear him bang on the keys my friend.. you will mos def haveta agree, he is a DON, fullstop.
I’ve heard quite a number of his albums and in every one of them, there’s that Monk signature which only he can pull off. It’s off but yet on, kao on the tension but yet heavy on the groove. Fella has got that quirky melody in his vibe and I think it stems from his gila babi behaviour. His speech is also damn hard to pick up.. if you think Miles is hard to understand, wait till you hear Monk man, he is the numero uno in the art of mumbling. Haha, lurve it! Last but not least, being a fan of head gear, I really dig his selection of hats. Some of his hats are totally nonsense vibe but yet they go really well with his tailored suits. His dressing is a bit like his music I guess, off but yet.. ORNNNN. Itz ornn itz ornn itz ornn itz ornn itz ornnnn :)
For this week’s Zao Gng, I wanna introduce a Monk recording other than the famous “Straight No Chaser”. I decided to go Columbia style and it was a hard toss between ‘Criss Cross’ and ‘Underground’. Both albums had a lot of tracks that I liked but in the end, I decided on ‘Criss Cross’ because there are some important cuts here for the jazz listener. Seriously mad shit here folks. Tracks like ‘Tea For Two’, ‘Eronel’, ‘Don’t Blame Me’, ‘Think Of One’, ‘Crepuscule With Nellie’ (intense!!), ‘Pannonica’ and not forgetting the title track, ‘Criss Cross’. All are 10 outta 10 killer cuts and the sound of these new remastered re-issues are damn shiok. Don’t sleep!
On the spotlight track, ‘Rhythm-A-Ning’, the best word to describe this track is SNAPPIN’. It’s dancefloor with a real tangkap feel. You can hear the bassist groovin’ hard, you can hear the drummer just vibin’ to the rhythmn and Monk as usual, doing his thang on the keys. It’s not easy to spar with a genius like Monk so kudos to Charlie Rouse on the tenor as well. If you wanna hear the full track, they’ve got a great live version on YouTube. Jazzin’ y’all, absolutely jazzin’!!
PS: Before I go folks, there’s another song on this LP that you can’t overlook. It’s something this genius wrote for his wife, called ‘Crepuscule With Nellie’. Check out this heavy-ass piano piece on YouTube. Speechless man.. STOOOOM TO DA BOOOOM.
Tangkap This!!!
-Crispian
