Label: Blue Note
Audio CD (March 23, 1993)
Jazz
Discovery! At the Five Spot documents emerging tenor giant John Coltrane's brief, but eventful six month residency with pianist-composer Thelonious Monk at New York's Five Spot. Monk was reestablishing his stature and drawing power as a jazz innovator while Coltrane grew by leaps and bounds studying Monk's repertoire and learning to navigate his compositions not just rhythmically and harmonically but thematically as well. Monk's melodies were too strong simply to run the changes, and on his extended jaunt Monk's tricky, intricate obstacle course "Trinkle, Tinkle," Coltrane attacks the harmonies with such compulsive power and blissful abandon, that you can hear whole new vistas of sound revealed to the tenor saxophonist. Recorded on a dinky tape machine by Coltrane's wife Naima, the sound is vague, hissy, and distorted--yet vivid and inspiring because on none of the few studio recordings documenting this period do Trane and Monk play with such unrestrained intensity. The mere existence of these tapes far transcends the shaky nature of their "production values."
By Chip Stern.
**
...many would say, but I believe Coltrane should have stayed a Monk sideman, judging by the evidence of this recording. No other Monk hornman shared Thelonious's lust for harmonic deconstruction. Usually players like Charlie Rouse, Johnny Griffin, or Sonny Rollins imposed structure on Monk's pixilated harmonic eccentricities, then the leader comes in with a piano solo that blows that order away. Only Trane, entering his furious sheets of sound period (he's like an erutping volcano), evinces a Monkian desire to shred order, structure, common sense. The two men were a match made in heaven, and they left only a tiny handful of recordings together. This is hands down the most anarchic (the whole band sounds weirdly restrained on the recently discovered Voice of America Recording). Coltrane sounds off-mike much of the time; his sound is so damn HUGE that you can still hear him loud and clear. The audio is poor, but who the hell cares when the music is of world historical importance. When you see a shooting star it's rarely under optimal conditions either, but would you pass up the experience?
By Thomas Plotkin.
**
Robin Kelley, professor of African American studies and anthropology at Columbia University, will soon publish Thelonious: A Life, a major full-length biography of Monk. He writes in the liner notes to the new CD:
"Everything they play is exciting, dynamic, sometimes adventurous, and very much in sync. Monk is having such a good time at the piano that he hardly gets up from the bench. The stories from the Five Spot in this period always portray Monk as dancing around or heading toward the bar while Coltrane 'strolls' with the rhythm section. But what Monk is playing underneath Coltrane is pure brilliance; to call it 'comping' simply does not do justice to the creative dialogue Thelonious is having with the entire band.
"The arrangement of 'Blue Monk' is another nice surprise, with Coltrane playing the melody a minor third below (except for the first note, which begins on B-flat, a major third below). This changes the sonority significantly, setting up a different kind of exploration of the blues."
As for Coltrane, he double-times during much of his solos at Carnegie Hall, in the style that Ira Gitler dubbed "sheets of sound." But by the time of the 1958 private recording that was released as Discovery! Live at the Five Spot (Blue Note, 1992), captured almost a year after the Carnegie Hall performance, Coltrane is already starting to use more of a variety of approaches as he begins to move away from his sheets-of-sound phase.
Discovery! was originally assumed to be from 1957. But soon after its release, Peter Keepnews found that Monk and Trane had had a one-night reunion at the Five Spot on September 11, 1958. For several reasons, it makes sense that Discovery! Live at the Five Spot is from this date. For one thing, it helps explain why drummer Roy Haynes can be heard on the recording, as identified by Michael Cuscuna; it was difficult to justify Haynes' presence in 1957 when he was busy touring with Sarah Vaughan, whereas in 1958 he was Monk's regular drummer. It also helps explain why Coltrane brought a tape recorder to the reunion show and put Naima in charge of it. He told Postif in 1961 that he had wanted a tape of himself with Monk as a souvenir, and finally made one. He could have been referring to this belated chance to get the recording he wanted. "I listen to that on occasion," he said, "and I feel a little nostalgic!"
So while the 1958 date is not absolutely proven, it makes good sense. It makes musical sense, too. Compare for example "Epistrophy," the band's theme, which appears on Discovery! and the first version on the Carnegie Hall recording: At the Five Spot, Haynes' drumming is soloistic and varied, and full of crashes and bops behind Coltrane's solo, which is poised and uses no double-time. The Carnegie Hall CD's initial take on the tune is much slower; Wilson does a lively double-time during the A section (like Haynes, so it's probably part of the arrangement), then behind Trane he keeps the hi-hat on 2 and 4 while Trane double-times for almost his entire solo. Wilson splashes and fills at times but overall concentrates on the groove-which is a fine approach.
Nellie Monk told me that after the Five Spot engagement, she didn't recall much further contact between Coltrane and Monk, socially or otherwise, but they did play several times on double bills in the 1960s. She also said that in 1963, when they brought their groups to San Francisco and San Jose, Coltrane sat in with Monk's group on at least one occasion.
Lewis Porter
**
Thelonious Monk- Piano
John Coltrane- Tenor Sax
Ahmed Abdul-Malik- Bass
Roy Haynes- Drums
**
01. Trinkle Tinkle 9:56
02. In Walked Bud 11:06
03. I mean You 13:38
04. Epistrophy 5:09
05. Crepuscule With Nellie 2:56
**
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