Tell me about...Thelonious Monk

[Dusty Chalk]

Please. (Mebbe I forgot that last time.)

I like some jazz, but I have to admit to not "getting" the less melodic stuff. The stuff I enjoy the most is the stuff that is the most melodic. That said, I'm willing to experiment, so don't take that as a hard-and-fast rule for recommendations -- just qualify. Please.

I'm thinking I really need to see "Straight No Chaser" (the movie executive produced by Clint Eastwood).

I picked up Brilliant Corners and ...with John Coltrane on SACD, what else should I get? Does he have any "Deluxe Editions", or should I stick with the RVG's?

[Dusty Chalk]

get every damn thing he did.

This is not good advice. C'mon, man, put some effort into it. Which ones do I get first? I just bought a shitload of SACD's, I need to go through them before I buy many more CD's, I'm not getting every single fochin' one of them.

[hungrych]

I don't like alot of the new RVG Blue Note remasters, they sound sort of odd to me. I think he's losing hearing in one ear or something.

Get Monk's Dream and Thelonious In Action and you'll be set for awhile. I have a hard time liking a new artist if I go and buy more than one album at once though, dunno about you but I would listen to what you have now for a month or so first.

[Thelonious Monk]

avoid at all costs

[Dusty Chalk]

Get Monk's Dream and Thelonious In Action and you'll be set for awhile. I have a hard time liking a new artist if I go and buy more than one album at once though, dunno about you but I would listen to what you have now for a month or so first.

Yeah, I'm the same way, hence why "get everything" is such bad advice. I totally burnt myself out on Spock's Beard that way, until Snow came out.

[hungrych]

Your face is cromulent

[saint.panda]

Brilliant Corners is a great start. Get one of this live albums as well, e.g. "Live at the It Club". And for something different, try his "Plays Duke Ellington". Unusual because more melodic Monk but also one of his best. This way you'll have a studio, a live and an un-Monkian album.

And if you can, catch one of his videos. He was a weird character, often had a open phone line connected to his wife because "he was playing for her" or sometimes during one of his band members' solo he would just get up (huge man) and start miming an airplane on stage with his arms spread out.