Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

Recorded in November 0f 1957, this concert was only recently “discovered”, and released by Blue Note Records, from the tapes of the Library of Congress. Recorded for the Voice of America, the concert is a brilliant display of Thelonious Monk’s primary compositions and John Coltrane’s continuing development as a master, although here he plays within the context of Monk’s looser, rhythmic sound. The driving force of his solo outings are still in the future. The beauty of this historical finding is the snapshot it provides us of the results of Coltrane’s recent tutelage under Monk after several years of uneven playing, due in large part to the gripping drug addiction he was in the process of overcoming. The band consists of Monk on piano, Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums. It’s difficult to select one or two songs to focus on. Perhaps this concert is one of the rare gems that demands a complete listen as opposed to selected tracks. An American Masterpiece.

Chet Baker: Sings and Plays From the Film “Let’s Get Lost”

A musician whose talent never seemed to reach it’s natural zenith due to a long standing drug addiction and general life mismanagement, Chet Baker still emerged as a leader in the West Coast “Cool” jazz movement of the 1950's. The trumpet was the instrument with which he first came into prominence, but his distinctive voice appears to be the artistic vehicle that will carry his legend into the future. Just before he died of injuries suffered in a fall from a window in Amsterdam, the renown photographer Bruce Weber made a piercing documentary of Baker’s life. To accompany the dramatically revealing video of this prodigy’s precipitous decline, Weber culled vocal tracks from Baker’s signature years of 1953 through 1956. The curious result is a beautiful collection of standards presented simply with Baker’s dulcet tone crooning in a hushed, casual manner. The songs are soft and comforting, from Cole Porter’s Every Time We Say Goodbye to Edward Heyman and Oscar Levant’s Blame It On My Youth. This album serves as an excellent representation of the developing, vocal jazz styling of the West Coast during the post bop years.