Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane ‎– At Carnegie Hall (180g LP)

Label : Mosaic Records, Thelonious Records – MQ1-231
This album was recorded on 29 November 1957 at “Thanksgiving Jazz”, a benefit concert produced by Kenneth Lee Karpe for the Morningside Community Center in Harlem. The recording tape was stored at the Library of Congress where it sat untouched, until 2005 when it was discovered by recording lab supervisor Larry Appelbaum. The recording was thenrestored by producer Michael Cuscuna and Thelonious Monk’s son.
The empathy and invention of the group here far surpasses the Riverside session, made months earlier. Playing together every night for 18 weeks sharpened the skills and interaction of these brilliant musicians. Monk’s piano playing has never sound like this; his arpeggios are virtuosic, and each note rings with clarity.
And Coltrane had fully mastered Monk’s music by this time. In the confines of short playing times (most tunes are 4 to 6 minutes in duration), he plays with a fervid intensity, trying to cram all his ideas into a brief stretch. Ahmed Abdul-Malik and Shadow Wilson play the intricate arrangements with fluidity, and push the soloists to great heights. Thanks to the clarity and presence of Wilson’s drums on this recording, his work will be a revelation to anyone previously unfamiliar with his name.
Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane At Carnegie Hall Track Listing: