Thelonious Monk - Live in Rotterdam 1967 [Sapphire Edition]

TITLE

1. Ruby, My Dear
2. Hackensack
3. We See
4. Epistrophy
5. Evidence / Epistrophy
6. Don’t Blame Me
7. Oska T. / Epistrophy
8. Blue Monk

When he stepped onto the stage at Club Doelen in Rotterdam on October 28, 1967, Thelonious Monk had just turned 50. Fifteen years later he would disappear from the music scene and withdraw for the final six years of his life at Pannonica de Königswater’s home in New York, never touching a piano again. Framed by the two “classics” “Ruby, My Dear” and “Blue Monk,” he leads the quartet of his three companions Charlie Rouse, Larry Gales and Ben Riley, together with their guests, for more than an hour and twenty minutes. Larry Gales’ bass seems to leap out of the speakers at the end of “Hackensack,” the horns are swept along midway through “We See,” responding to one another as they spin through the dizzying “Oska.” And suddenly, in the middle of the concert, a solo moment in “Don’t Blame Me”: everything appears contrasting, twisted and off-kilter, each note seemingly surprised by the previous one. Monk first approaches the melody from behind before bringing it forward. Finally: “Blue Monk” — what an exit! Jazz Mania writes: “This 1967 recording sounds as if it were made yesterday and presents a magnificent Monk surrounded by true stars such as Clark Terry and Johnny Griffin.”

Frédéric D’Oria-Nicolas, the musical treasure hunter of The Lost Recordings, describes the path the label had to take to realize this release: “My first memory of Monk dates back to my teenage years. His language and way of understanding the piano, so far removed from what I appreciated at the time, felt completely foreign — much like Bartók’s music did to me. Years later it was a revelation: the music appeared entirely innovative. The overlapping and colliding harmonies and melodies can be viewed like a Kandinsky or a Pollock. This previously unreleased concert, discovered in Dutch archives, is a true masterpiece that no one had been able to witness before.”

Celebrated worldwide for preserving invaluable musical heritage and for the unmatched quality of its Phoenix-Mastering™ restorations, The Lost Recordings now releases this legendary concert for the first time in absolute reference quality: the “Sapphire Edition” is presented as a double LP (33 rpm) pressed on 200-gram transparent Ultimate Record® vinyl. The hand-numbered edition is strictly limited to 4,000 copies, and the luxurious box includes a 16-bit album download card. Lacquer cutting was personally handled by master engineer Kevin Gray.

Musicians

Thelonious Monk (piano)
Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone)
Larry Gales (bass)
Ben Riley (drums)
Clark Terry (trumpet)
Ray Copeland (trumpet)
Jimmy Cleveland (trombone)
Phil Woods (alto saxophone)
Johnny Griffin (tenor saxophone)