Misterioso (Thelonious Monk album)
Misterioso | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | December 1958 | |||
Recorded | August 7, 1958 | |||
Venue | Five Spot Café (New York) | |||
Genre | Hard bop | |||
Length | 47:08 | |||
Label | Riverside | |||
Producer | Orrin Keepnews | |||
Thelonious Monk albums chronology | ||||
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Misterioso is a 1958
One of the first successful live recordings of Monk's music, Misterioso was produced by Orrin Keepnews of Riverside Records. According to Keepnews, the pianist played more distinctly here than on his studio albums in response to the audience's enthusiasm during the performance. Misterioso's title was meant to evoke Monk's reputation as an enigmatic, challenging performer, while its cover art was part of Riverside's attempt to capitalize on his popularity with intellectual and bohemian audiences; it appropriated Giorgio de Chirico's 1915 painting The Seer.
Misterioso was originally met with a mixed critical reaction; reviewers applauded Monk's performance but were critical of Griffin, whose playing they felt was out of place with the quartet. The album was remastered and reissued in 1989 and 2012 by Original Jazz Classics, and has since received retrospective acclaim, with some viewing Griffin's playing as the record's highlight. The saxophonist's solo during the performance of "In Walked Bud" in particular has developed renown among critics and jazz musicians.
Background
In 1951,
In May 1957, the SLA said Monk needed to get a club owner to hire him first, prompting Colomby to consider the Five Spot Café in New York City's East Village. "I wanted to find a place that was small", he later said. "I once drove past this place in the Village and there was a bar and I heard music ... A place where poets hung out."[3] Joe Termini, who co-owned the venue with his brother Iggy, testified at Monk's police hearing, which resulted in the reinstatement of his cabaret card and his employment at the Five Spot Café.[3] In his first stable job in years, Monk helped transform the small bar into one of the city's most popular venues, as it attracted bohemians, hipsters, and devout fans of the pianist's music. With the residency, he had finally found jazz stardom after twenty years of career struggles and obscurity.[4]
Monk began his first stint at the venue in July 1957, with saxophonist John Coltrane, bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and drummer Shadow Wilson in his group.[5] However, by the time it ended in December, he had lost Wilson to poor health, while Coltrane left in pursuit of a solo career and a return to Miles Davis's group.[6] Monk returned to New York's club scene in 1958 with a new quartet and received an eight-week offer from Joe and Iggy Termini to play the venue again, beginning on June 12.[7] He played most nights during the weekend to capacity crowds with Abdul-Malik, drummer Roy Haynes, and tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, who had performed with Monk before.[8] Griffin was unfamiliar with all of his repertoire and, like Coltrane, found it difficult to solo over Monk's comping during their first few weeks. During their performances, Monk often left the stage for a drink at the bar or danced around, which gave Griffin an opportunity to play with more space. However, the quartet eventually developed a sufficient rapport and grasp of the set list.[9]
Recording
Orrin Keepnews attempted to record the quartet live at the Five Spot Café on two different occasions in 1958 for his label, Riverside Records. His first recording of the ensemble was of two sets during their July 9 show. Monk was disappointed with the recording and did not allow Riverside to release it, although it was released years later after his death.[9]
Keepnews returned to the venue on August 7 when Monk performed an evening show in the club's overcrowded room, which the producer had set up with recording equipment.[10] It yielded both Misterioso and Thelonious in Action; the latter was released first in 1958.[11] The show was believed to be the first successful live recording of Monk's music, until the recording of his 1957 concert with Coltrane at Carnegie Hall was discovered and released in 2005.[12] The two live albums from the Five Spot Café are the only recordings that document Monk's time with Griffin.[13]
Composition and performance
According to jazz critic
On "Nutty", Griffin incorporated
The quartet began "In Walked Bud" with an eight-bar piano intro and thirty-two-bar form. Griffin began his solo a minute into the performance with saxophone wails. In the third minute, Monk did not play, while Griffin played fast phrases at the top of his register with intermittently slower R&B and free jazz elements. Monk shouted approvingly throughout Griffin's solo before he resumed piano and played a two-minute theme.[13] "Just a Gigolo", a standard, was the only track on the album not composed by Monk, who performed it in a brief, unaccompanied version.[21] It was played as a single chorus repeated at length.[22]
The title track—first recorded for
Title and packaging
According to Keepnews, the album and its title track were named as a slight play on the words "mist" and "mystery", meant to evoke the perception of Monk's music as enigmatic and challenging at the time.[16] Jazz critic Neil Tesser said that the word, which is Latin for "in a mysterious manner", was "used most often as a musical direction in classical music scores. But by the time Monk's quartet recorded this music [in 1958] 'Misterioso' had largely come to identify Monk himself."[24]
To capitalize on Monk's popularity with intellectual and bohemian fans from venues such as the Five Spot Café, Riverside released Misterioso and reissues of his older records with designs that appropriated 20th century works of art.[25] The album's cover art is a reproduction of Giorgio de Chirico's 1915 painting The Seer, which was originally painted as a tribute to French poet Arthur Rimbaud.[26]
According to Monk biographer Robin Kelley, Rimbaud had "called on the artist to be a seer in order to plumb the depths of the unconscious in the quest for clairvoyance". This led Kelley to believe the painting was the best choice for the album cover. "The one-eyed figure represented the visionary", he explained. "The architectural forms and the placement of the chalkboard evoked the unity of art and science—a perfect symbol for an artist whose music has been called 'mathematical.'"[25] In the opinion of musicologist Robert G. O'Meally, the cover reflected "the mysterious violations of convention of perspective, the silences, and oddly attractive angles (the overall futuristic quality) in Monk's music".[27]
Release and reception
Misterioso was released on
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [31] |
Music Story | [citation needed] |
MusicHound Jazz | 5/5[32] |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz | [33] |
PopMatters | 9/10[34] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [35] |
Tom Hull – on the Web | A–[36] |
In the
I've recently learned [that the Johnny Griffin solo on 'In Walked Bud'] is more legendary than I'd dreamed—there are jazz musicians who've committed it to memory, I'm told.
— Robert Christgau (2019)[39]
In 1989, Misterioso was
Track listing
All compositions are by Thelonious Monk, except where noted.[16]
Side one
- "Nutty" – 5:22
- "Blues Five Spot" – 8:11
- "Let's Cool One" – 9:16
Side two
- "In Walked Bud" – 11:20
- "Just a Gigolo" (Irving Caesar and Leonello Casucci) – 2:07
- "Misterioso" – 10:52
1989 CD bonus tracks
Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–6, with the following additional tracks:
- "'Round Midnight" – 6:15
- "Evidence" – 10:14
2012 CD bonus track
- "Bye-Ya" / "Epistrophy (Theme)" – 11:54
Personnel
1958 LP[16]
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2012 reissue[24]
|
Release history
Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
---|---|---|---|---|
United States | 1958[42] | Riverside Records | stereo LP
|
RLP 1133[43] |
mono LP | RLP 12–279[43] | |||
United Kingdom | 1964[22] | RLP 279 | ||
United States | April 7, 1989[44] | Original Jazz Classics | CD
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OJCCD-206-25 |
May 15, 2012[45] | Original Jazz Classics, Concord Music Group | CD | OJC-33725-02 |
See also
References
- ^ Kelley 2009, pp. 144, 155–56.
- ^ Kelley 2009, pp. 158, 225.
- ^ a b Kelley 2009, p. 225.
- ^ Kelley 2009, p. 1.
- ^ Kelley 2009, p. 225; Kelley 2009, p. 1
- ^ Kelley 2009, p. 239.
- ^ Anon. 1995, p. 70; Kelley 2009, p. 242
- ^ Kelley 2009, p. 242; Planer 2002, p. 895; Kelley 2009, p. 243
- ^ a b c Kelley 2009, p. 243.
- ^ Kelley 2009, p. 243; Anon. 1995, p. 70
- ^ Anon. 1995, p. 70.
- ^ Anon. 1995, p. 70; Siegel 2005
- ^ a b c Christgau 2009.
- ^ Giddins 1976, p. 105.
- ^ Planer 2002, p. 895; Keepnews 1958
- ^ a b c d e f Keepnews 1958.
- ^ a b c d e Planer 2002, p. 895.
- ^ Keepnews 1958; Fox 1964, p. 118
- ^ Planer 2002, p. 895; Fox 1964, p. 118
- ^ Christgau 2009; McKnight 2010.
- ^ Planer 2002, p. 895; Keepnews 1958
- ^ a b c Fox 1964, p. 118.
- ^ Gioia 2012, p. 267; Schuller 1958
- ^ a b Tesser 2012.
- ^ a b Kelley 2009, p. 249.
- ^ O'Meally 1997, p. 39; Kelley 2009, p. 249
- ^ O'Meally 1997, p. 39.
- ^ Anon. 1958, p. 27; Keepnews 1958.
- ^ Anon. 1959, p. 56.
- ^ Hentoff 1959, p. 115.
- ^ Larkin 2007, p. 2005.
- ^ Holtje & Lee 1998.
- ^ Cook & Morton 2006, p. 927.
- ^ a b c McManus 2012.
- ^ Swenson 1999, p. 488.
- ^ Hull n.d.
- ^ Yanow 2001, p. 1334; Gioia 2012, p. 267
- ^ Christgau 2005; Christgau 2009
- ^ Christgau 2019.
- ^ Anon.(b) n.d.
- ^ Anon. 2012.
- ^ Anon. 1958, p. 41.
- ^ a b Anon. 2001, p. 304.
- ^ Anon.(c) n.d.
- ^ Anon.(d) n.d.
Bibliography
- Anon. (December 25, 1958). "On Riverside" (PDF). Down Beat. 25 (26).
- Anon. (March 19, 1959). "Thelonious Monk". Down Beat. 26 (16).
- Anon. (1995). Original Jazz Classics Collector's Guide. ISBN 0963742132.
- Anon. (2001). Brilliant Corners: A Bio-discography of Thelonious Monk. ISBN 0313302391.
- Anon. (2012). "Original Jazz Classics Add Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk and the Quartet Titles". All About Jazz. Archived from the original on May 27, 2013. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
- Anon.[b] (n.d.). "Thelonious Monk / Thelonious Quartet Monk – Misterioso CD Album". CD Universe. Muze. Archived from the original on January 17, 2016. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
- Anon.[c] (n.d.). "Misterioso OJCCD 206 2 : Thelonious Monk Quartet". Concord Music Group. Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
- Anon.[d] (n.d.). "Misterioso (Original Jazz Classics Remasters)". Concord Music Group. Archived from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
- Christgau, Robert (February 22, 2005). "Noise on Music Central". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on March 30, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
- Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2006). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. Penguin Books.
- Christgau, Robert (2009). "Not So Misterioso". The Barnes & Noble Review. Archivedfrom the original on May 11, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
- Christgau, Robert (April 16, 2019). "Xgau Sez". robertchristgau.com. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
- ISBN 978-0199937394.
- Fox, Charles (August 1964). "Jazz and Swing". Gramophone. 42.
- Giddins, Gary (September 20, 1976). "Two Labels Pull Out the Old Bottles". The Village Voice.
- Hi Fi Review. 2.
- Holtje, Steve; Lee, Nancy Ann, eds. (1998). "Thelonious Monk". ISBN 0825672538.
- Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Grade List: Thelonious Monk". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
- Keepnews, Orrin (1958). Misterioso (LP liner notes). Thelonious Monk Quartet. Riverside Records. RLP 1133.
- ISBN 978-1439190494.
- ISBN 978-0195313734.
- McKnight, Terrance (2010). "Remembering Harlem's Finest: Bud Powell". WNYC News. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- McManus, Liam (2012). "Thelonius Monk Quartet: Misterioso". PopMatters. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
- O'Meally, Robert G. (1997). "Jazz Albums as Art: Some Reflections". The International Review of African American Art. 14 (1). Hampton University Museum.
- Planer, Lindsay (2002). "Thelonious Monk: Misterioso". In Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris; ISBN 087930717X.
- Schuller, Gunther (November 1958). "Thelonious Monk". The Jazz Review.
- Siegel, Robert (2005). "Unearthing Unknown Monk, Coltrane Recording". NPR. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
- Swenson, John, ed. (1999). The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide. Random House.
- Tesser, Neil (2012). Misterioso (CD reissue liner notes). Thelonious Monk Quartet. Original Jazz Classics. OJC-33725-02.
- ISBN 0879306270.
External links
- Misterioso at Discogs (list of releases)