Thelonious Monk - Live At The It Club (Mosaic Records)

The Thelonious Monk Quartet with Charlie Rouse lasted 11 years. October 31 and November 1, 1964 at the It Club in Los Angeles showcase Monk at particular high point pianistically; in fact, he went into a Los Angeles studio and recorded the album Solo Monk on the afternoons preceding and following the live taping. He is in full force throughout, but his playing is particularly superb on the standards "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" and the previously unreleased "Sweet And Lovely."

The band plays standards, many of Monk's famous tunes, a few lesser known items like "Gallop's Gallop" and "Blues Five Spot" and the recent compositions "Teo" and "Bright Mississippi." Propelled by Gales and Riley, Monk and Rouse deliver amazing 10-minute excursions on such Monk classics as "Nutty," "Rhythm-a-ning" and "Blue Monk."

Rouse in his sixth year with Monk had hit his stride, truly becoming Monk's musical alter ego. Remarkably, drummer Ben Riley had joined the quartet at the beginning of 1964 and bassist Larry Gales had only logged in a month at the time of this taping; yet they already show the first signs of collective greatness on these evenings.

Mosaic has returned to the original three-track tapes and mixed them down to beautiful sounding analog stereo masters, presenting the six sets they played that night as they happened.

Track Listing:

1. Blue Monk
2. Well, You Needn’t
3. ‘Round Midnight
4. Rhythm-a-ning
5. Epistrophy (theme- Saturday set one)
6. Blues Five Spot
7. Bemsha Swing
8. Straight No Chaser
9. Epistrophy (theme – Saturday set two)
10. Evidence
11. Sweet And Lovely
12. Nutty
13. Epistrophy (theme – Saturday set three)
14. Teo
15. I’m Getting Sentimental Over You
16. Epistrophy (theme – Sunday set one)
17. Misterioso
18. Gallop’s Gallop
19. Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are
20. Epistrophy (theme – Sunday set two)
21. Bright Mississippi
22. Just You, Just Me
23. All The Things You Are
24. Epistrophy (theme – Sunday set three)

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