Search - Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk :: With Thelonious Monk

The music is what it is all about

T. Austin | Van Nuys, CA United States | 05/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What you have here is a hard-bop album at its finest hence the sketchy quality. The recording sounds like they placed a microphone in the middle of a studio, which they probably did do, and with no rehearsals, and no mixing, just let the artists express themselves.Johnny Griffin, the tenor sax player on the album is a guy who likes to play fast and Art Blakey lets him too since he has no problem keeping up. Griffin contributes the song ÒPurple ShadesÓ whereas Thelonious Monk wrote all of the other songs.Bill Hardman plays trumpet and though this guy never became a household word, he did move on to create his own sextet. Though this album is hard bop, his trumpet has a real nice Òwest coastÓ sound.Spanky Debrest plays bass. Now isnÕt ÒSpankyÓ a great name for a jazz cat. I donÕt know much about him but he sure can lay down a nice line.Okay, then there is Monk, period!Art Blakey on the drums, the guy who called his music Òthe funky styleÓ when describing it. Art Blakey, one heck of a drummer who fit hand-in-glove with Thelonious Monk better than any drummer could. (I think it is so cool that this is the guy who coined the word Òfunky styleÓ when describing his music and now it is part of the lexicon.)This album was recorded on tape with no "fancy-schmancy" 16 track mixing equipment or digital Pro Toolsª to turn it into plain, white, vanilla. No, that didn't happen here. Just picture five guys making music in the same room. What some audio aficionados or audiophiles may believe to be a sketchy sound quality, I happen to believe that it sounds "real" or honest."