The Thelonious Monk Quartet – Monk’s Dream (180g LP)

Label: Impex – IMP 6014 (Columbia CS8765)
180 Gram Virgin Vinyl – Pressed at RTI – AAA 100% Analogue
2500 Numbered Limited Edition

Highly Reviewed at HiFi+ – 10 out of 10 for Recording & Music!!!
Michael Fremer Rated 9/10 Music, 9/10 Sonics!
Heavy-Weight 180 Gram Audiophile All-Analog Pressing! Mastered by Kevin Gray & Pressed at RTI!

A great reissue and very highly recommended… If you have no Monk albums, this would be a good place to start.” – Michael Fremer, www.analogplanet.com, Music 9/10, Sound 9/10!

The sound makes it a must-have for audiophiles. It’s another of the great Columbia jazz releases that take on a presence and tonal balance somewhere between the laid-back Verve sound of Val Valentin and the aggressiveness of van Gelder. The recording balance and technique are nearly perfect. The vinyl mastering in this reissue, as well as the vinyl pressing, is superb. Buy it before you lose your chance. Dogogo Review

Recorded at the tail end of 1962 and originally issued in 1963, Monk’s Dream is Thelonious Monk’s debut for Columbia Records after releases for Blue Note, Prestige and Riverside. Working with producer Teo Macero and featured in a quartet setting with Charlie Rouse (tenor sax), John Ore (bass), and Frankie Dunlop, (drums), Monk’s Dream was the best selling LP of Monk’s lifetime, ultimately contributing to his appearance on the cover of Time magazine in 1964.
The 8-song set features five Monk originals including the rhythmically complex “Five Spot Blues” and “Bolivar Blues,” as well as a pair of solo sides sans accompaniment in “Just A Gigolo” and “Body and Soul.” Although a majority of the tracks had been previously recorded in various live settings with different titles, this quartet is regarded by many as one of the best groups Monk was ever associated with and it is their studio interpretations of the material that remain the definitive versions and add up to one of Monk’s signature albums!
HIiFi+ – 10 out of 10 for Recording & Music!!!

“The sound of this new issue is to die for and then some. Impex releases only a handful of LPs each year, but its track record for taste and great sound is unrivaled. Perfect in every way!” – Dennis Davis, HiFi+
“Produced by Teo Macero, Monk’s Dream was the first LP for his new label, and would also become the best selling of Monk’s career… The sound here, as compared to original mono and stereo pressings, is more dynamically nimble and present, as well as tonally somewhat cooler. But if the early LPs sound warmer, they also have a hooded coloration that floats over the sound, making them sound more homogenized, and not as lively as this fine Impex reissue.” – Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound,