Thelonious Monk UNIQUE THELONIOUS MONK

Personnel: Thelonious Monk (piano); Oscar Pettiford (bass); Art Blakey (drums).Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on March 17 & April 3, 1956. Originally released on Riverside (209). Includes original liner notes by Orrin Keepnews.In an effort to force the musical mainstream to reasses Thelonious Monk, Riverside producer Orrin Keepnews asked the pianist to record an album of familiar American standards. Much to Riverside's surprise, many of the same critics who'd previously dismissed Monk's music for being too abstract now criticized his new label for putting him in a creative straitjacket. However, with the benefit of hindsight, we can hear clearly the pianist's roots in the Tin Pan Alley tradition throughout THE UNIQUE THELONIOUS MONK.Monk begins with a hard-swinging rendition of Gershwin's "Liza," introducing some subtle rhythmic variations on the theme and a touch of boogie woogie in the bridge. The pianist's rolling lines and jagged punctuations culminat