Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington.
Charlie Rouse was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and flautist. His career is marked by his collaboration with Thelonious Monk, which lasted for more than ten years.
Money Jungle is a studio album by pianist Duke Ellington with double bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach. It was recorded on September 17, 1962, and released in February 1963 by United Artists Jazz. All but one of the compositions were written by Ellington, with four of the seven on the original LP being recorded for the first time on this album. Later releases on CD added eight tracks from the same recording session.
Carmen Sings Monk is a 1990 studio album by the American jazz singer Carmen McRae, focusing exclusively on the songs composed by Thelonious Monk. It was one of the last recordings released in her lifetime. McRae was accompanied by Clifford Jordan on soprano and tenor saxophone, and a rhythm section with pianist Eric Gunnison, bassist George Mraz and Al Foster on drums. Two songs, namely "Get It Straight" and "Suddenly", were recorded earlier that year live at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, who played the longest time with Monk. The rhythm section was almost the same, then with Larry Willis on piano.
Buell Neidlinger was an American cellist and double bassist. He has worked with a variety of pop and jazz performers, prominently with iconoclastic pianist Cecil Taylor in the 1950s and '60s.
Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington is an album by jazz pianist Thelonious Monk that was released by Riverside in 1955. It was also released under the title Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington. The album contains Monk's versions of songs by Duke Ellington. The album was reissued by Riverside on March 27, 2007, in the United States and on April 16, 2007, in the United Kingdom.
Misterioso is a 1958 live album by American jazz ensemble the Thelonious Monk Quartet. By the time of its recording, pianist and bandleader Thelonious Monk had overcome an extended period of career difficulties and achieved stardom with his residency at New York's Five Spot Café, beginning in 1957. He returned there the following year for a second stint with his quartet, featuring drummer Roy Haynes, bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin. Along with Thelonious in Action (1958), Misterioso captures portions of the ensemble's August 7 show at the venue.
California Here I Come is a live album by jazz pianist Bill Evans. It was recorded in 1967, but not released on the Verve label until 1982 as a double LP. It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Jazz Album charts in 1983 and was reissued on CD in 2004. The pieces were recorded at the Village Vanguard, where Evans had previously recorded the sets that appeared on the highly influential Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard, both later comprised on the definitive collection The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961.
Reflections is the second album by Steve Lacy which was released on the Prestige label in 1959. It features performances of Thelonious Monk's compositions by Lacy, Mal Waldron, Buell Neidlinger and Elvin Jones.
New York City R&B is a 1961 free jazz album originally recorded at a session by bassist Buell Neidlinger but subsequently reissued under joint names with the pianist Cecil Taylor.
Straight, No Chaser is the sixth studio album Thelonious Monk recorded for Columbia records, released in 1967. The album was reissued on CD in 1996, including restored versions of previously abridged performances and three additional tracks.
Thelonious Himself is a studio album by Thelonious Monk released in 1957 by Riverside Records,. It was Monk's fourth album for the label. The album features Monk playing solo piano, except for the final track, "Monk's Mood", which features John Coltrane on tenor saxophone and Wilbur Ware on bass. It was Monk's second solo piano studio album, and it was the first made by an American label and distributed in the United States.
Jazz Advance is the debut album by pianist Cecil Taylor, recorded for the Transition label in September 1956. The album features performances by Taylor with Buell Neidlinger, Denis Charles and Steve Lacy.
Steam is a live album by jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded at the East-West Jazz Festival in Nuremberg, West Germany on May 14, 1976 and released on the Enja label.
Thelonious Monk Trio is an album by American jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. The album features his earliest recordings for Prestige Records, performing as a soloist with a rhythm section of bassist Gary Mapp, either Art Blakey or Max Roach on drums, and one track with Percy Heath replacing Mapp. It also contains the earliest recorded versions of the jazz standards "Blue Monk" and "Bemsha Swing".
Time Remembered is a live album by jazz pianist Bill Evans with Chuck Israels and Larry Bunker partially recorded at the Shelly Manne's club in Hollywood, California in May 1963, but not released until 1983 on the Milestone label as a 16-track double LP. It would be later reissued on CD in 1999, with only 13 tracks. The trio performances were recorded at the same sessions that produced At Shelly's Manne-Hole (1963) and were first released on Bill Evans: The Complete Riverside Recordings (1984). The four solo performances were recorded in a separate session in April 1962 in New York City. "Some Other Time" was recorded in December 1958, in New York City.
Columbia Jazz Masterpieces was a series of Jazz CD, LP and cassette reissues from Columbia Records which began in 1986. Written inside the blue box used on all the album covers "Digitally Remastered Directly from the Original Analog Tapes." In Europe, the series was known as CBS Jazz Masterpieces, with the reissues being released by CBS Records, until 1991, when the Columbia Jazz Masterpieces title was used on all subsequent releases and represses.
The following is the discography of American jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk (1917–1982).
Kenny Barron at the Piano is a solo album by pianist Kenny Barron, recorded in early 1981 and released on the Xanadu label.
Four for All is an album by the group Sphere featuring saxophonist Charlie Rouse, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Ben Riley which was recorded in 1983 and released on the Verve label.
