Thelonious Monk’s, November 1957 release titled Monk’s Music is an important album as it includes some of the all too brief collaborations the ground breaking pianist-composer recorded that year with future jazz legend, John Coltrane on saxophone. Featuring Monk backed by a septet, the album was reissued last year in its often preferred Mono mix by Craft Recordings as part of the rebooted “Original Jazz Classics” (OJC) series. Not surprisingly, the results are great and this is one reissue that Monk fans need to pick up as soon as possible.
Monk’s Music includes five wonderful Thelonious Monk originals: “Crepuscule With Nellie,” “Off Minor,” “Epistrophy,” “Well, You Needn’t” and one of my favorites “Ruby, My Dear.” The album is also notable for the haunting opening track which sets a church-like tone for the album. Written by William Henry Monk, an English composer, “Abide With Me,” is a clear call to the listener to pay attention for what’s to come. The somber gospel New Orleans funereal sensibility which Monk and his band lay down here sets the stage for the challenging still-modern blues-y compositions ahead.
I am pleased how nice this new edition of Monk’s Music sounds. I’ve compared it to a clean mid-60s “green label” Riverside Records reissue as well as a more “well-loved” 1958-era blue label second pressing. At the end of the day, the new Craft Recordings’ pressing sounds like what the album is supposed to sound like which is key.
The reissue was pressed on 180-gram vinyl at the highly respected RTI pressing plant, featuring all-analog mastering from original tapes at Kevin Gray’s Cohearent Audio. Craft Recordings even recreated the “Tip-On” style album jacket — as used in the 1950s and ’60s — and a near-period-accurate white Riverside Records label (which was only on the 1957 first pressings). The reissue looks, feels and sounds as much like the original editions as possible.
The high end on the new edition is no doubt cleaner and in some ways more open than my early editions which sound more compressed. The noise floor is vastly improved over my old LPs and in the case of the blue label copy, it is dramatically better because it’s not off-center.
As far as value propositions go, it is worth taking a moment to explore how this compares to rare original pressings. Finding a “mint” to “near mint” condition original 1957 pressing of this album is a truly “needle-in-the-haystack” proposition. And if you do, unless you are an active crate digger like me, chances are it will set you back significant dollars at a collector’s shop or from an online dealer.
A the time of writing there was exactly one 1957 copy on collector’s marketplace Discogs (dot com) in just VG+ condition selling for $100. There are a few of the 1966 green label VG copies selling for between $55 and $70. Previous notable reissues such as the original 1983 OJC series command upwards of $80 in mint condition. The probably wonderful sounding 2023 Electric Recording Company edition will run you about $600 on the second hand market. Ouch.
That said, the prospect of obtaining a nice clean original Mono edition of Monk’s Music for about $40 (available at Amazon if you click on the title link any where in this review) is a great deal! Perhaps my only nit to pick is that the cover art is not quite as clear as my mid 60s pressing as you can see from this photo but that is probably a minor issue for most people. Ultimately it comes down to how the music sounds and this new Craft Recordings Original Jazz Classics reissue of Monk’s Music is excellent.
Where to buy:
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc…You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
