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A TAV Curator’s Pick

"What is so grand about the Carnegie tapes is that those tunes Trane was struggling with (the first couple of weeks he was near-pitiful, with the heads, but Monk pounded away at the chords) - say, "Evidence," "Monk's Mood," "Epistrophy" which grew steadily more finished and exquisite during that Summer of wonder - by time of the concert a few months later, not only was Trane peerless with the heads, but now sailed off into his own furtherness and the band itself was tight as Dick's hat band." - Amiri Baraka, liner notes

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“Jazz has had its share of great archival discoveries, not the least of which were Dean Benedetti's recordings of Charlie Parker. But the discovery of more music from the Thelonious Monk quartet with John Coltrane is made all the more extraordinary because so few knew it existed and the only official recordings by this band were made in its first weeks of existence.

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Now a forgotten November 1957 Carnegie Hall concert taped by Voice Of America radio has been discovered by the Library of Congress with two appearances by the quartet. These two 25-minute, five-tune sets feature the quartet in great fidelity and unbelievable form. The empathy and invention of the group here far surpasses the Riverside session, made months earlier. Playing together every night for 18 weeks sharpened the skills and interaction of these brilliant musicians. Monk's piano playing has never sound like this; his arpeggios are virtuosic and each note rings with clarity on the Carnegie Hall piano. Coltrane had fully mastered Monk's music by this time. In the confines of short playing times (most tunes are 4 to 6 minutes in duration), he plays with a fervid intensity trying to cram all his ideas into a brief amount of time. Ahmed Abdul-Malik and Shadow Wilson play the intricate arrangements with fluidity and push the soloists to great heights. Thanks to the clarity and presence of Wilson's drums on this recording, his work will be a revelation to anyone who had not had the fortune to see him live.

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“This is one of those "historic" recordings that becomes an instant classic and is one of the truly great finds in jazz lore. It documents a fine band with its members at the peak of their powers together. The package also contains voluminous liner notes by the likes of Ira Gitler, Amiri Baraka, Ashley Khan, Stanley Crouch, and others. This is a must-have.” – AllMusic