First of all, this is far from a bad album and everything on here is very much listenable. However, these compositions, while surely well performed, lack a lot of qualities to truly make this a stand out and memorable release, especially considering the prowess of drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach, who both support Monk's piano throughout this album.
Thelonious Monk is one of the most interesting figures in jazz, an intensely interesting and energetic man. This album, however, was not it. It sounded like he had to fulfill a contractual obligation and was phoning it in. The music just sounds tired, like I could just nap to it. Even the fantastic Art Blakey and Max Roach are both boring on this album, AND THEY ARE LITERALLY ART BLAKEY AND MAX ROACH. This album is just boring… not horrible, but boring. This is admittedly not one of his ... read more
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