Epistrophy

Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan - Epistrophy (2019) {ECM}
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© 2019 ECM Records
Jazz / Modern Creative / Guitar / Double Bass

Like their acclaimed ECM release Small Town of 2017 – which The Guardian called “wistful and mesmerizing… tonally ingenious and haunting” – Epistrophy by guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan was recorded at New York City’s Village Vanguard. The new album once again captures the rare empathy these two players achieve together in this intimate environment. There are further poetic takes on pieces from the duo’s Americana songbook (“All in Fun,” “Red River Valley,” “Save the Last Dance for Me”), as well as another intense version of a composition by Paul Motian (“Mumbo Jumbo”), an artist whom both the guitarist and bassist knew well.

Following a stream of magnificent and hugely influential albums in the early to mid-1950s, the latter part of the decade and the lead up towards his signing for Columbia Records proved a major transitional period for jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Monk.

Thelonious Monk - The Complete Riverside Recordings (1988) {15CD Riverside Victor Japan VDJ-25010~24 rec 1955-1961}
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© 1955-61, 1988 Riverside / Fantasy / Victor Japan | VDJ-25010~24
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Piano

The studio and live recording sessions that Thelonious Monk cut during his six-year stay at the Riverside label are compiled over the 15 discs in the Complete Riverside Recordings. This middle era – between his early sides for Prestige and the final ones for Columbia – is generally considered Monk's most ingenious and creative period. The sessions are presented in chronological order, accurately charting the progression and diversions of one of the most genuinely enigmatic figures in popular music. The Complete Riverside Recordings explores Monk's genius with a certain degree of real-time analysis that simply listening to each of the individual albums from this era lacks.

Thelonious Monk - At Newport 1963 & 1965 (2003) {2CD Set, Sony Mastersound Japan SICP 5069~70}
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© 1963-65, 2003 Sony Music Japan / Columbia | SICP 5069~70 | Sony Mastersound
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Piano

Thelonious Monk's 1963 Newport Jazz Festival set has been released in whole or part on several different Columbia releases, but this 2002 reissue is the best version yet. One finally gets to hear nothing but Monk on this edition, with the added bonus of a previously unreleased and undocumented appearance from the 1965 festival. The earlier material, with Charlie Rouse, Butch Warren, and Frankie Dunlop, is already very familiar to serious Monk devotees, particularly the inspired addition (due to the suggestion of festival producer George Wein) of clarinetist Pee Wee Russell on two songs.

Thelonious Monk featuring Johnny Griffin - Complete Live At The Five Spot 1958 (2009) {2CD Set, Lone Hill Jazz LHJ10360}
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© 1958, 2009 Lone Hill Jazz | LHJ10360
Jazz / Bop / Post Bop / Piano

Just after John Coltrane left him and before the arrival of Charlie Rouse, Thelonious Monk formed a quartet with Johnny Griffin, which played at the Five Spot in New York in August & July, 1958. Half of this music was issued on two original Riverside albums: “In Action” and “Misterioso”. This edition contains all known music from these famous gigs plus as a bonus, a rare sextet selection by Monk including Griffin, Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams.