Track Selection: Caravan
Artists
Thelonious Monk (p) Oscar Pettiford (b) Kenny Clarke (d) recorded Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, July 21 & 27, 1955
Music
Monk reinvents Ellington’s classic and the three swing like something else. Pettiford, phew!. At the time of his signing to Riverside, Monk was highly regarded by his peers and by some critics, but his records did not sell in significant numbers, and his music was still regarded as too “difficult” for mass-market acceptance. Riverside managed to buy out his previous Prestige contract for a mere $108. He willingly recorded two albums of jazz standards as a means of increasing his profile.
The Critic says… with Caravan, Monk masters the Ellington material, more than a tune; an instrumental composition. Keepnews thought he could reach a wider audience for Monk through the use of standard tunes, however a musician of Monk’s uncompromising originality was never going to be easily accepted by a large audience. Plink plonk, plink. Nice.
Gorgeous second cover (LJC does art) A painting by French post-impressionist Henri Rousseau, whose naïve primitive jungle paintings were disparaged by critics of the day, claiming to be shocked by his work or ridiculed it. Seems an appropriate choice for Monk, and an improvement on the drab and conventional first cover of the US release (right)
Vinyl: RLP 12-201
UK Riverside release, blue twin reels which date from a few years after the US release.
The Matrix:
Philips UK pressing, handwritten matrix on side two – something not seen before on the normally very disciplined Philips production process.
Collectors Corner
Source: London record store. From a collection claimed to have been dormant in an attic over thirty or more years. Not played for thirty or forty years. That is the best kind.
Pingback: Thelonious Monk The Unique Thelonious (1956) London/ Riverside | Johnson's Jazz Box
Great music….
Hey, I’ve got one of those “drab and conventional first cover(s)”! Riverside, white label–very cool.
Email me privately Matt (email address at end of the ABOUT page)
Would it be rude of me to ask which shop? And whether there is anything good left?
Love everything Monk, can’t help it. I hope to someday bump into a box of untouched records in someone’s attic as well. Did the record store owner tell you what else was in the box?
Errr, yess. I bought four of them. Feature in posts shortly.
OK, we’ll wait and see. Discovered an old ‘bric a brac’ store I never knew existed in my own town last week. For some reason I keep feeling that I’m going to score Mobley’s 1568 there. The Mrs calls it wishful thinking…