[bad word] Al Sears,Herbie Fields and unknown-tenor sax
Charlie Christian-guitar
Nick Fenton and unknown-bass
Kenny Clarke and [bad word] 

1.I Got Rhythm
2.Nice Work If You Can Get It
3.Down Down Down
4.I Found Million Dollar Baby
5.Body And Soul
6.I've Found New Baby
7.My Melancholy Baby
8.Sweet Lorraine
9.Sweet Georgia Brown
10.You're Lucky Guy
11.Stompin' At The Savoy
12.Indiana

Thelonious Monk-piano
Roy Eldridge,"Hot Lips"Page,Joe 

THELONIOUS MONK - AFTER HOURS AT MINTON'S
(Definitive DRCD11197)

The Second World War was a [bad word] time for jazz as the music evolved from Big Band Swing into more intimate groups featuring extended solos. Within a few years the music would evolve drastically into BeBop (a term coined by Monk). Recorded music at the time was limited to how much would fit on the side of a 10-inch 78 rpm disc, but a clever Columbia University student, Jerry Newman, had two portable disc-cutters and a supply of 12 inch blanks which allowed him to capture ten minute jams at a time. He liked to hang out in Harlem where the scene was swingin' at Minton's Playhouse off 7th Avenue. On any night half a dozen musicians of the calibre of Oran "Hot Lips" Page, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian and Roy Eldridge were kicking around some Tin Pan Alley tunes and stretching out. On piano: the one and only Thelonious Monk. THELONIOUS MONK - AFTER HOURS AT MINTON'S collects a dozen tracks recorded at Minton's Playhouse in May 1941, featuring the legendary pianist. It's a reissue of THE EARLY THELONIOUS MONK on Moon, with the addition of one track "Stompin' at the Savoy" from the recordings made with Charlie Christian. These rare tracks recorded at Minton's in 1941 have appeared in various configurations. The most well-known of them feature Christian, the cool daddy of electric jazz guitar. THE IMMORTAL CHARLIE CHRISTIAN on Laserlight features his [bad word] but I'm always waiting for the band to cool down so I can hear Monk trinkling away. Now the spotlight is on Monk. The sound is not perfect but you can hear it fine as if through a P.A., and almost imagine Monk shuffling his feet and playing his ham-handed version of stride like he's shadow-boxing with the keyboard. Then he'll pull out one of those whole-tone glissandi, light as a feather, and float it by imperceptibly in the background as Joe Guy, with his mute, warbles "I found a million dollar baby... in a five and ten cent store."

On one or two tracks you are almost outside on 118th Street; nearby a couple of kids who have not yet earned the nicknames "Coffin Ed" and "Gravedigger" are playing cops and robbers around the trash cans, hiding down basement stairs. Inside in the smoky room hustlers shuffle, pimps primp, and inter-racial couples sway to the groove. Up on the tiny bandstand Monk is concentrating, sweating in his jacket, tie and hat, his feet seeking invisible organ pedals, sucking in his cheeks in a dramatic reversal of the Dizzy Gillespie look.

After a lugubrious start from Herbie Fields' tenor on "Body and Soul," Roy Eldridge decides to rip it up Kansas City style. "Melancholy Baby" and "Sweet Lorraine" appeared on [bad word] BATTLE AT MINTON'S where Hot Lips and Joe Guy duke it out. Five of the track appeared on the Xanadu album HARLEM ODYSSEY, but the rest were scattered all over the place. [bad word]  the set is missing "Topsy" with Hot Lips Page from AFTER HOURS IN HARLEM, and two tracks with Hot Lips Page from SWEETS, LIPS AND LOTS OF JAZZ. It's also missing four tracks with Don Byas that appear on two albums, LIVE AT MINTON'S and MIDNIGHT AT MINTON'S. But this is a concentrated dose of early Monk and the only documentation of his pianistic evolution. The influence of Art Tatum can be heard in strident [bad word] on "Sweet Lorraine" but Monk is definitel