The Loneliest Monk

I have to admit to being slightly disappointed with this disk. not because of any lack of quality but because it wasn't quite what I was expecting. The Best Of Thelonius Monk - The Blue Note Years, should be a sure fire cert, so why the disappointment ? Well, I saw the track listing and recognised all sorts of goodies like Well You Needn't, Round Midnight, Epistrophy, Straight No Chaser, Ruby My Dear. What I didn't realise was that the sides on this disk were all recorded in the 1940s ( in my ignorance I didn't even know Blue Note was going in the forties ) and are all only around three minutes in length. Now I know that sometimes more is less but I feel this music benefits from being able to stretch out and breath. Here, most tracks are just a simple statement of Monk's wonderfully individual and spiky themes with a couple of truncated solos. So it gives an overview of the man's genius but is more of a snack than a banquet. I think I will need to keep an eye out for the edition of Jazz Library on BBC Radio 3 when Monk is featured and see where the more substantial workouts can be found. There's Monk and Coltrane somewhere isn't there ?