Thelonious Monk - Jazz Moods: 'Round Midnight (2004)

This is essentially a sampler of tracks drawn from Thelonious Monk's 1960s stay at Columbia Records, a period that coincided with his 11-year partnership with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse. Monk worked with some phenomenal tenor players over the years, including Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, but it was the decidedly un-flashy Rouse who had perhaps the best affinity for Monk's odd, angular compositions, and his sax lines show the same tight use of space and time that are the hallmarks of Monk, both as a composer and as a piano player. The brief, beautiful, and understated "Crepuscule With Nellie," included here, is a case in point, opening with Monk solo on piano, with Rouse bringing in a simple and sympathetic sax line halfway through the composition that broadens the melody, which then spreads out as calm and gorgeous as a river meeting the delta. Several cuts of Monk solo at the piano are also collected here, including the wonderful opening track, "Ruby, My Dear." As a brief sampler of Monk's often underrated Columbia years, this set works fine, but unfortunately the liner notes are a problem, with virtually every track listed as coming from the wrong original album. "Crepuscule With Nellie," for instance, is listed as being from the album Monk's Dream when it actually appeared on Criss-Cross, and the alternate take four of "Ugly Beauty" included here is cited as a track from Criss-Cross when it originally appeared as a bonus track on the reissued version of Underground. For most listeners this will only be a minor problem, but Monk was a stickler for detail in his compositions and he deserves to have his music presented correctly.