Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sleep - Discography

Perhaps the ultimate stoner rock band, Northern California trio Sleep had a career that wafted in and out of focus from within their self-mandated cloud of marijuana smoke. In their short time together, they issued some of the heaviest, most uncompromising doom metal albums ever recorded, leaving a legend far exceeding the actual volume of their output.

Formed in the late 80's in San Jose, CA, by bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros, guitarists Matt Pike and Justin Marler, and drummer Chris Haikus, Sleep instantly drew comparisons to underappreciated '80s doomsters like the Obsessed, Pentagram, and especially Saint Vitus. Their sludgy 1991 debut was named Volume One in honor of their sonic godfathers Black Sabbath, but it wasn't until Marler's departure (reportedly to become a monk!) and the release of 1993's Sleep's Holy Mountain that their own unique doom metal vision truly began coming into focus. The album became a favorite of the heavy metal press, and Sleep were heralded alongside other promising retro-rocking groups like Kyuss and Monster Magnet as leaders of the newly emerging stoner rock/doom metal scene. Such was the buzz surrounding the group that, following a short European tour supporting first-generation doomsters Trouble and English hopefuls Cathedral, Sleep were reportedly offered an unprecedented six-figure deal by London Records. But instead of grabbing their chance at mainstream stardom for all it was worth, Sleep vowed to delve even deeper into their incredibly heavy and slothful sound instead.

After almost two years of writing and rewriting material for their next album (to be named Dopesmoker, not surprisingly) amidst abundant weed consumption, the trio finally delivered its long-awaited epic, now named Jerusalem, to London Records. But to the label's surprise, Jerusalem was comprised of a single 60-minute magnum opus to marijuana that the band refused to edit or split up into sections under any circumstances. A complete deadlock ensued, tying up both parties in red tape for another two years. Finally, having smoked their entire cash advance through their bongs, Sleep decided to break up rather than surrender the album. Guitarist Matt Pike went on to form a new, more energetic heavy metal band called High on Fire, while drummer Chris Haikus eventually reunited with founding guitarist (and now ordained monk) Justin Marler in the Sabians. In the meantime, an unauthorized version of Jerusalem was quietly released by Rise Above Records, but it wasn't until 2003 that a supposedly authentic and fully endorsed version of Dopesmoker finally reached record store shelves, bringing the convoluted Sleep saga to a close at last.



Download - Volume One


Dowload - Volume Two


Download - Sleep's Holy Mountain


Download - Jerusalem


Download - Dopesmoker

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Couldn't Stand the Weather [Legacy Edition - 2 CD]





Files are in FLAC format (super audio quality)

COULDN'T STAND THE WEATHER: LEGACY EDITION commemorates the 20th anniversary year of the passing of legendary guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. It revisits the commercial breakthrough of the second album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Released in May of 1984, it was their first LP to earn RIAA gold certification, and their first platinum-seller as well.

The first entry by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble in the prestigious Legacy Edition series of multi-disc packages, COULDN'T STAND THE WEATHER: LEGACY EDITION will be available as a two-CD set at all physical and digital retail outlets starting July 27th, however, you can pre-order your copy now at Amazon

• Disc one restores the original eight-song, 38-minute album with "Cold Shot" (a Top 30 Modern Rock track), indelible covers of blues standards including "Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place In Town)" and Guitar Slim's "The Things (That) I Used to Do" and, most notably, Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" (also a Top 30 Modern Rock track and a Grammy®-nominated performance); the sequence expands with another 11 studio outtakes from the original recording sessions in January 1984, three of them previously unreleased;

• Disc two premieres a previously unreleased live concert captured three month's after the original LP's release, from August 17, 1984, at The Spectrum in Montreal, Canada. The band played two sets that night and this disc captures selections from the late show. Featured are a mix of songs from the just-released Couldn't Stand the Weather (among them "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)"), plus tunes from the 1983 Texas Flood debut.

As with every title in the Legacy Edition series, the booklet contains a comprehensive liner notes essay written by an acknowledged expert. Andy Aledort, associate editor of Guitar World magazine, is a blues-rock maven and accomplished guitarist in his own right. He has authored more than a dozen guitar instruction books on trailblazers like Hendrix, Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Jeff Healey and others; and annotated CDs on Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Dickey Betts and more. Aledort has been covering Stevie Ray's career since his arrival at Epic Records in the summer of 1983, and has written liner notes for several of his Epic/Legacy releases, including the four-disc box set SRV (2000); The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan (2002); The Real Deal: Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (2006); and Solos, Sessions & Encores (2007).

Aledort's 2,700-word essay sets the stage: "Though a mere six months had passed between the release of Texas Flood [SRV&DT's Epic debut in 1983] and the start of the Couldn't Stand the Weather recording sessions," Aledort writes, "a great deal changed for the band, professionally and personally, in that short period. Couldn't Stand the Weather represented the first time the band had a recording budget, but with it came record company pressures that had been absent previously. In addition, as the pace of the band members' careers increased, so did the level of partying and drug use."

The bonus track studio outtakes on disc one add a new perspective to the band's chronology at this early stage, starting with Stevie's original, "Empty Arms," one of several tracks here from the first posthumous SRV collection, 1991's Grammy Award-winning The Sky Is Crying. Hank Ballard & the Midnighters' "Look At Little Sister" and New Orleans blues man Earl King's standard "Come On" (covered by Hendrix on Electric Ladyland) showed up in different versions on SRV&DT's next album, 1985's Soul To Soul. They had performed Freddie King's "Hide Away" and Hound Dog Taylor's "Give Me Back My Wig" at shows (cf. Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985), but neither song would ever show up on one of their albums during Stevie Ray's life-time.

The previously unreleased versions here of "Boot Hill" and Elmore James' "The Sky Is Crying" are different than those heard on The Sky Is Crying. In addition to "Empty Arms," that album contained a number of tracks from the January 1984 sessions, including covers of Lonnie Mack's "Wham!," Hendrix's "Little Wing" and Willie Dixon's "Close To You." Disc one comes to a close with a previously unreleased alternate take of the short instrumental, "Stang's Swang" – compare it to the version that closes the original Couldn't Stand The Weather album and it's evident this version strips away the saxophone.

In August 1984, SRV&DT headlined Montreal's Spectrum arena, where they performed an early and a late set, the latter chronicled on disc two here. They reprised a number of songs from the well-received Texas Flood debut of the year before, among them "Testify," "Love Struck Baby," "Texas Flood," "Lenny," and "Pride And Joy." But the bulk of the attention that night was given to the songs on the new album, Couldn't Stand The Weather, among them "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)," "The Things (That) I Used To Do" "Honey Bee," "Couldn't Stand The Weather," "Cold Shot," "Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place In Town)," and (for a third time in this package) "Stang's Swang."


Tracklist:
CD1: Scuttle Buttin' ; Couldn't Stand The Weather; The Things (That) I Used To Do; Voodoo Child (Slight Return); Cold Shot; Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place In Town); Honey Bee; Stang's Swang; Empty Arms; Come On (Pt. III); Look At Little Sister; The Sky Is Crying; Hide Away; Give Me Back My Wig; Boot Hill; Wham; Close To You; Little Wing; Stang's Swang.
CD2: Testify; Voodoo Child; The Things (That) I Used To Do; Honey Bee; Couldn't Stand The Weather; Cold Shot; Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place In Town); Love Struck Baby; Texas Flood; Band Intros/Encores; Stang's Swang; Lenny; Pride & Joy.


FILES ARE IN THE COMMENTS!

Use Winrar or similiar to unpack *.rar archives.


Friday, January 28, 2011

Oscar Pettiford - Another One

Oscar Pettiford became a major influence on a number of jazz artists along with fellow bassists Jimmy Blanton and Charles Mingus. Another One, Pettiford's third album as a leader for the Bethlehem label, was recorded in 1955. This exceptional date features the horns of Donald Byrd, Ernie Royal, Bob Brookmeyer, Gigi Gryce, and Jerome Richardson. Highlights include the Pettiford-penned "Bohemia After Dark," named after the club in Greenwich Village and acknowledged as a jazz standard, "Stardust," featuring Pettiford's poetic bass faintly accompanied by pianist Don Abney, and "Minor Seventh Heaven," with Pettiford switching to cello. This is not just a bebop date; Pettiford had the range to incorporate influences like Duke Ellington and calypso, creating a full, lyrical band sound that matched his bass playing. Pettiford's legacy was cut short after he passed away suddenly in 1958 in Copenhagen at the age of 37.

Download

Monday, January 24, 2011

Jerome Cooper - The unpredictability of predictability


"this is not just an album for drummers... anyone into music can dig it this music. Classical music peoplecan dig it because it's structured, people into rock because of the beat. people into jazz because of the improvisation aspect, and those into ethnic music because of the instruments involved."--Jerome Cooper

Not many jazz drummers present entire albums of themselves in solo format, but when they do, chances are they're going to haul out everything including the kitchen sink to dazzle the listener with their range and dexterity. Not Jerome Cooper. This superb musician, known primarily for his masterful and invaluable contributions to the fine trio Revolutionary Ensemble, treats his solo performances as free-standing compositions scored for only certain instruments from which he extracts huge volumes of sounds and rhythms. For example, "Bert the Cat" is written for balaphone (an African ancestor of the marimba), chiramia (a double-reed instrument that sounds liked a more softly-timbred shenai), bass drum, and sock cymbal. Using only these four elements, Cooper constructs a rich, propulsive theme so inherently fascinating that one soon forgets one is listening to only a solo percussionist. Cooper has no interest in wowing the listener by playing fast or loud, but simply desires to develop lovely rhythms and melodic patterns and allow them to flower. A fine recording and wonderful antidote for those who claim to be bored by drum solos. --Brian Olewnick

-Side a:
The unpredictability of predictability
Movement A,B - flute, whistle, chiramia, bass drum, sock cymbal (9.59)
Movement C - drums set (mallet) (4.29)
Movement C1 - floor tom-tom, bass drum, sock cymbal, voice (6.40)

-Side b:
Bert The Cat - balaphone, chiramia, bass drum, sock cymbal (20.37)

(1979, About time 1002)

DOWNLOAD

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Fushitsusha - 1991.9.26 19:15-20:08 [VIDEO!!!]

Live performance at the Shibuya La Mama club in Tokyo on 26 September 1991.

Originally released on VHS. NTSC region-free DVD.

Bass - Yasushi Ozawa
Drums - Jun Kosugi
Vocals, Guitar - Keiji Haino

26th September 1991 saw a titanic showdown at the Shibuya La Mama club in Tokyo. Keiji Haino's tumultuous Fushitsusha brought their epochal de/re-construction of rock to ringside to tussle it out with John Zorn's international hardcore skronk trio Pain Killer. The night was being documented for a Pain Killer live album (released as Rituals), which meant that Fushitsusha got to benefit from an unusually high-quality recording. Previously available as a PSF video, but out of print for the last few years on that unwieldy medium, this is the document of Fushitsusha's jaw-dropping set that night -- and still the only official Fushitsusha visuals available. A digest-sized version of everything that is great about the group, somehow squeezing the Grand Canyon breadth and depth of Haino's ambition into a far shorter set than they usually play. Raining down like manna from heaven for the converted, 53 minutes worth of prime Fushitsusha live, loud and leveling. What more do you need to know?

DOWNLOAD

Friday, January 21, 2011

January batch of Metal/Noise/HCore/Electronica/Post-Rock



Artist: Earth
Album: Angels of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1
Year: 2011
Genre: Experimental / Drone / Ambient
Download

Band: The Dirtbombs
Album: Party Store
Year: 2011
Genre: Noise Rock / Punk / Blues
Download




Band: Destroyer
Album: Kaputt
Year: 2011
Genre: Electronica / Acid Jazz
Download

Band: Wire
Album: Red Barked Tree
Year: 2011
Genre: Post-punk / Experimental Rock
Download



Band: Locrian
Album: The Crystal World
Year: 2010
Genre: Experimental / Post-rock / Black Metal
Download

Band: Mogwai
Album: Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
Year: 2011
Genre: Post-Rock
Download

Jerome Cooper & Oliver Lake - For the People (Hat Hut, 1978)


A great duo album with the master Jerome Cooper & the saxophonist Oliver Lake.

Jerome Cooper - Percussion, Drums, Main Performer
Oliver Lake - Glute, Sax (Soprano), Bells


Tracklist:
1. Movement A1 (8:40)
2. Movement A2 (5:34)
3. Movement B1 (5:33)
4. Movement B2 (4:46)
5. Movement B3 (4:56)
6. Movement B4 (5:31)

Download


Thursday, January 20, 2011

Günter Christmann & Detlef Schönenberg - We play

1. Ninive (06.10)
2. Chuckling (01.34)
3. Creamcheese (12.28)
4. Swithe (09.20)
5. Fighting cats (03.07)
6. We play (07.16)
7. Jennifer's island (03.26)

Günter Christmann - trombone
Detlef Schönenberg - drums

Recorded at Studio F, Radio Bremen.
Released on LP only.

(Feb 1973, fmp 0120)

Thx to my japanese's friend for all his wonderful rips. And this is one of the greatest fmp's releases in my opinion. im completely obsessed by detlef's drumming! he's a monster, better than bonzo ahahah.


HOST REMOVED FILES (COMPLAINTS RECEIVED)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Horace Silver - Safari 1952-1954




I came across this incidentally, check liner notes for more informations.

  • 1.Safari
  • 2.Thou Swell
  • 3.Yeah!
  • 4.Horacescope (Horoscope)
  • 5.Prelude To A Kiss
  • 6.Ecaroh
  • 7.Quicksilver
  • 8.Knowledge Box
  • 9.Opus De Funk
  • 10.Day In, Day Out
  • 11.How About You
  • 12.I Remember You
  • 13.Silverware
  • 14.Buhaina
  • 15.Doodlin'
  • 16.Creepin' In
  • 17.Room 608
  • 18.Stop Time
Download

Monday, January 17, 2011

Ornette Coleman - Naked Lunch

You couldn't do much better for a soundtrack to David Cronenberg's adaptation of William S. Burroughs' beat classic than have Ornette Coleman team up with Howard Shore, a film composer who keeps within the strictures of classic film score ideals and colorations, but explores them with the intelligence of Bernard Herrmann. Coleman's free jazz complements the schizophrenia of the film and pays homage to the generation that preceded (and gave birth to) him, while Shore maintains the melancholic dread that powers most Cronenberg films. Like the film -- where the Algiers of the story might only be Bill Lee's imagination -- Shore uses Arabian elements sparingly, and in the context of the cool New York sound. Wondrous strange.

Download

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Freddie Hubbard - Here to Stay


This album has certainly had a sad history. It was left in the Blue note vaults for fourteen years. Then it was reissued in a double-vinyl set with Hub Cap, a coupling that doesn't reveal either session in the best light.Then a decade later, it finally was released as a single album. And that brings us to the present version, on which occasion the devout Bob Blumenthal seems to say in his liner notes (well, he hedges around the fact) that this is just fine, but he'd might rather listen to other Hubbard Blue Notes. That leaves the impression that perhaps Blue Note was right for keeping this in the vaults for so long.

Here's an attempt to redeem “Here to Stay,” perhaps one of Hubbard's finest ever, and surely misunderstood as well as undervalued. The case for this album's value can be built simply. Forget the original track sequence. Begin with Hubbard's cover of “Body and Soul,” a completely remarkable ballad performance marked for the maturity of the individual interpretation the young trumpeter (who was 24 years old in 1962) brings. Hubbard is thinking hard—harder than most trumpeters double his age have thought—about the lyrics, holding a lot of passion in reserve while maintaining a determined, probing tone. I think only the classic Coleman Hawkins' original recording outclasses Hubbard's reading.

While Hubbard recorded with drummer Philly Joe Jones on a number of sessions, I think their chemistry was never as intensely pitched as on this session, particularly on the opening “Philly Mignon,” written by Hubbard for the fiery drummer. This is one of Philly Joe Jones' supreme moments in the studio, and this CD deserves top-drawer billing for that alone. If you listened to “Body and Soul” first, then skip to “Philly Mignon,” where you'll drop the cliche of the young Hubbard as all brassy confidence with brio to the brim, and instead hear a mature musical intelligence at work that is as questioning and questing, as conflicted as Lee Morgan's.

Another indication of Hubbard's well-seasoned taste on this session is revealed in using two of Cal Massey's most memorable compositions, “Father and Son” and “Assunta.” Listen to the solos by Hubbard and Shorter on “Assunta” and ask yourself if they haven't slipped to a new phase of their growth, apart from Blakey's band at this juncture, that's more darkly introspective. I hope the album title is true of the recording's fate.

Download


Friday, January 14, 2011

Sonny Rollins - Freedom Suite


By 1958 Sonny Rollins was already able to claim the jazz high road as a tireless innovator who chose to test the mainstream's boundaries. Freedom Suite made his place in the vanguard all the more stable. Rollins slimmed his ensemble down to a trio--as he had done a few months earlier on his Village Vanguard live recordings (see volume 1 or volume 2). But Rollins turned the trio to his own extended work, this CD's title suite, and his horn playing thrived under the extensions. "Freedom Suite" is a winding, episodic piece, full of stair-climb segues and solos that seemed to be collective with drummer Max Roach. And its political implications were fully externalized in the title, declaring Rollins's position on the burgeoning civil rights movement. Rollins didn't altogether give up the standards or show-tune repertoire, however, staying in the pop-music ring with Noel Coward's "Someday I'll Find You." --Andrew Bartlett

Download

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Django Reinhardt - "In Solitaire: Complete Recordings for Solo Guitar"


Between dozens of recordings made from 1937 to 1950, legendary French gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt waxed one, maybe two titlesof solo guitar per year. Often it was less than that. Sometimes he made them at the request of the producers, who surely heard him warming up and decided to capture on records some of that magic atmosphere.Then Django took his instrument and performed whatever was on his mind: in occasions fully developed solo compositions; another times, instantly made up improvisations. This outstanding CD comprises them all for the first time in chronological order, including some very rare tracks and a recently discovered solo from a radio program as a bonus track. Definitive. 2005.

DOWNLOAD - Super quality 320 CBR kbps mp3!

Booker Ervin - Structurally Sound (1966)


The double meaning of the word "sound" in this title references both the phenomenon of sound and, particularly, Booker Ervin's durability. When Ervin convened this quintet in December 1966, he'd had a string of critically acclaimed (and extraordinarily creative) albums on Prestige (case in point: The Space Book). But real success, even by jazz standards, didn't propel Ervin to the heights where he belonged. His tenor saxophone, deeply entwined with the Texas tradition, had breadth that hit with the force of Coltrane and a tonal control that allowed him to aerate his playing beautifully. Here he does just this on both quick-paced tunes, such as trumpeter Charles Tolliver's "Franess," and on the band's evocative take on Oliver Nelson's "Stolen Moments." A young John Hicks lays down the piano in colorfully bright hues, and Tolliver and Ervin are off. They play riveting hard bop that should be part of any jazz collection. After all, Ervin was one of Mingus's faves, and we know what discerning tastes Charles had.

DOWNLOAD

Monday, January 10, 2011

Anthony Braxton - Self titled (Actuel 15)


Date: September 10, 1969
Location: Saravah Studios, Paris, France
Label: byg

Anthony Braxton (ldr), Anthony Braxton (f, wf, cl, cbc, ss, as), Leroy Jenkins (h, mo, vn, vl), Leo Smith (t, fh), Steve McCall (d, per)

a.
The Light on the Dalta - 10:06 (Leo Smith)
b.
Simple Like - 09:26 (Leroy Jenkins)
c.
Composition 6G - 19:40 (Anthony Braxton)
All titles on: - byg LP 12": 529 315 [Actuel 15] - Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton (f) on a only. Anthony Braxton (wf) on a only. Omit Leroy Jenkins (h) on b. Omit Leroy Jenkins (mo) on b. Anthony Braxton (cl) on a only. Anthony Braxton (cbc) on b only. Anthony Braxton (ss) on c only. Omit Anthony Braxton (as) on b. Leroy Jenkins (vn) on c only. Leroy Jenkins (vl) on b only.

Smith also plays logs on b. On c., add Braxton (toy piano, sound machine, chimes, balloons); Smith (balloons); Jenkins (balloons); McCall (darbouka, balloons).


Download

Friday, January 7, 2011

Revolutionary Ensemble - 164=11tc

Leroy Jenkins - violin, viola, thumb piano, claves, synth, vocals, gong
Sirone - bass, trombone, wood block, bells, shaker, vocals, gong
Jerome Cooper - drums, bugle, piano, balafon, temple blocks, wood block, gong, bell gong,
vocals, tympani, saw

recorded at Moosham Castle, Austria

(Aug 1977, Enja 3003)

DOWNLOAD


One of the greatest free jazz ensemble i ever heard so far.
Dedicated to the memory of Leroy Jenkins.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Paul Lovens and Paul Lytton - Moinho de asneira_A cerca da bela vista a graca


Paul Lovens and Paul Lytton - percussion and live electronics

1-Moinho da asneira [mill of stupidity] (23.15)

Recorded in the morning of Dec 1978 at Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen at the opening of 'IBK-Winterausstellung'.
Lytton's instruments strewn about the stage.

2-a cerca da bela vista a graca [the beeg view] (25.25)

Recorded in the evening of Nov 1979 at the Zimmertheater, Bremen at a concert organised by Torsten Muller of 'Kollektiv Freie Musik', Bremen.

(1978-79, Po Torch 05)

Two master of drums and improvisation at work. i hope someone will reissue the whole po torch catalog sooner or later..

DOWNLOAD


Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Anthony Braxton - "9 Compositions (Iridium)"


Anthony Braxton's 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 is a nine-CD set documenting what Time Out New York called "last Spring's epochal run" at New York's Iridium Jazz Club with his 12+1tet. Described by Braxton as "THE point of definition in my work thus far," these concerts featured the world premieres of Compositions 350 through 358, the final works in his Ghost Trance Music series, recorded over the course of this rare four-night stand on an American stage.

Musicians: Mary Halvorson - electric guitar; Nicole Mitchell - flute, alto and bass flutes, piccolo, voice; Sara Schoenbeck - bassoon, suona; Reut Regev - trombone, flugelbone; Carl Testa - acoustic bass, bass clarinet; Anthony Braxton - alto, soprano, and sopranino saxophones, clarinet, Eb contralto clarinet; James Fei - alto and soprano saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet; Andrew Raffo Dewar - soprano and c-melody saxophones, clarinet; Jay Rozen - tuba, euphonium; Stephen H. Lehman - alto and sopranino saxophones; Jessica Pavone - viola, violin; Aaron Siegel - percussion, vibraphone; Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet, flugelhorn, trumpbone, piccolo and bass trumpets, shell.


CD1
CD2
CD3
CD4
CD5
CD6
CD7
CD8
CD9

Monday, January 3, 2011

Miles Davis - The Complete On The Corner Sessions

Miles Davis' The Complete On The Corner Sessions, the eighth and final deluxe box set in the Grammy Award-winning Miles Davis Series, includes more than 6 hours of music - twelve previously unissued tracks plus five tracks previously unissued in full - covering sixteen sessions from On the Cornerm, Big Fun, and Get Up With it. Joined by such jazz legends as Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Jack DeJohnette, Billy Hart, and countless others, this 6-CD deluxe edition also contains a 120-page full-color booklet with liner notes and essays by Grammy-winning producer Bob Belden, journalist Tom Terrell, and acclaimed arranger and composer Paul Buckmaster. With such a comprehensive collection of Miles Davis' songs, plus dozens of rare photographs and new illustrations, this very special deluxe box set is a must have for any fan of Davis' genius or jazz music in general.

Download Cd 1 & 2
Download Cd 3 & 4
Download Cd 5 & 6

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Thelonious Monk - The Complete Blue Note Recordings

"From the 1947 sessions that lead off this set through to the 1958 live recordings at the Five Spot with John Coltrane, this box set chronicles the development of one of the most unique and creative American musicians. The first CD dates entirely from 1947, and on it we hear a Monk conversant in the bebop idiom, his distinct style emerging. By 1951 on the second CD we have a gorgeous version of "Ask Me Now," with all the delightful rhythmic hesitation that became one of his trademarks. "Reflections" on the third CD has Sonny Rollins caressing the melody in an almost languid tempo, followed by a classic version of "Misterioso," with J.J. Johnson and Horace Silver sharing the piano role. The Monk-Coltrane live cuts on the fourth CD are incandescent. All in all, a set that is both enlightening (with a number of alternate takes) in its scope and delightful in its sheer musicianship and creative spark." --Michael Monhart

Personnel: Thelonious Monk (piano); Kenny "Pancho" Hagood (vocals); Danny Quebec West, Sahib Shihab, Lou Donaldson (alto saxophone); Sonny Rollins, Lucky Thompson, John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Idrees Sulieman, George Taitt, Kenny Dorham (trumpet); J.J. Johnson (trombone); Milt Jackson (vibraphone); Horace Silver (piano); John Simmons, Gene Ramey, Al McKibbon, Paul Chambers, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Bob Paige, Nelson Boyd (bass); Art Blakey, Max Roach, Shadow Wilson, Roy Haynes (drums).

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on April 14, 1957; live at the Five Spot, New York, New York on September 11, 1958; Apex Studios, New York, New York on July 2, 1948; WOR Studios, New York, New York between October 15, 1947 and May 30, 1952.

Added to Monk’s original Blue Note sessions (1947-52) are the two tracks he cut with Sonny Rollins in ’56 and the recently discovered live ’58 Five Spot recording with John Coltrane. The Five Spot session has been speed corrected, and the early dates have been de-clicked. Sidemen include Art Blakey, Milt Jackson, Lou Donaldson, Lucky Thompson and Sahib Shihab.


Download cd 1
Download cd 2
Download cd 3
Download cd 4