A really unique little album from tenorist Charlie Rouse – a player who's best known to most for his famous 60s recordings in the Thelonious Monk Quartet – but who stretches out here in a very different style for the Strata East scene of the 70s! The album's almost funky at times, and nicely offbeat and spiritual at others – with players who include Paul Metzke and George Davis on guitars, Calo Scott on cello, David Lee on drums, Stanley Clarke on bass, and Azzedin Weston and Airto on percussion – a very unusual mix of instrumentation that presents that wonderful Rouse tenor sound in a very different way! Charlie also plays a bit of bass clarinet at one point – and titles include "Bitchin", "In His Presence Searching", "Hopscotch", "Two Is One", and "In A Funky Way". LP, Vinyl record album

Clifford Brown only recorded a handful of sides for Blue Note – but all of the best ones are included in this excellent album – a full length set that culls together Brown's material from the 10" years, issued as a memorial to his early death in 1956! Side one features Brown with the modernist Gigi Gryce on flute and alto sax – plus Charlie Rouse on tenor, John Lewis on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Art Blakey on drums – a lineup that has a strong sense of soul, balanced with a dose of modernism – on titles that include the classic "Hymn to the Orient" – worth the price of the album alone – plus "Easy Living", "Cherokee", "Wail Bait", and "Minor Mood". Side two features an equally sharp group – with Lou Donaldson on some excellent alto, and the great Elmo Hope on piano – on titles that include "Brownie Speaks", "De Dah", "Cookin", "You Go To My Head", and "Carving The Rock". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant live set from the key 60s years of the Thelonious Monk Quartet – material recorded in Tokyo as part of a TV broadcasting – done with excellent sound, and different than the album release of material that came out from Columbia Records at the time! The group here features pure genius – a balance of Monk's modern piano with sax, bass, and drums at a level that's almost an answer to that pairing in the late 50s Dave Brubeck group – Monk really pushing the edges, alongside the stunning Charlie Rouse on tenor, with Butch Warren on bass and Frankie Dunlop on drums. This version of the group would be gone by the end of 1963, but sound wonderful here – on titles that include "Epistrophy", "Evidence", "Just A Gigolo", "Blue Monk", and "Ba Lou Bolivar Ba Luse Are". LP, Vinyl record album

Previously-unreleased live material from the glory days of the Thelonious Monk Quartet – captured right in the middle of that group's famous run on Columbia Records, with fidelity as strong as if the label itself were producing the session! We could say volumes about this group – and we probably already have on these pages – and we're always amazed at the way the richness of the tenor of Charlie Rouse balances out the angular ideals of Monk on the piano – at a level that may well make Rouse one of Monk's greatest musical partners, ever! The rest of the group is equally wonderful – John Ore is a superb bassist, and Frankie Dunlop somehow manages to grab all the rhythm in Monk and Charlie's playing, and make them swing even more. All tracks here are long, and filled with strong solos throughout – on versions of "Nutty", "Monk's Dream", "Body & Soul", "Bye Ya", and "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". LP, Vinyl record album

A never-issued performance of this classic tune from the Thelonious Monk songbook – recorded for Danish Radio in 1963, and played by the legendary quartet that featured Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, John Ore on bass, and Frankie Dunlop on drums! The quality is right up there with some of the live material that Columbia has unearthed in recent decades – and Rouse takes a great solo that's worth the price of the single alone! 7-inch, Vinyl record

A lost live recording from the legendary Thelonious Monk Quartet of the 60s – done at a time when the group wasn't recording at all, as a small benefit at a high school in California! Yet despite that setting, the vibe here is as relaxed, open, and human as if the combo were playing at an overseas club – very personal presentation of the best ideals inherent in Monk's piano, Charlie Rouse's tenor, Larry Gales' bass, and the drums of Ben Riley! Monk had been having some health issues during the year, but they don't show up at all in his performance – save for maybe a sense of brooding darkness at times, although that was always a quality that might appear in his performance. The music is every bit as essential as the London recordings that would emerge a few years later – and titles include "Blue Monk", "Well You Needn't", "Ruby My Dear", "Don't Blame Me", "Epistrophy", and "I Love You Sweetheart Of All My Dreams". LP, Vinyl record album

Heavy duty hardbop – one of three amazing Epic Records sessions cut by drummer Dave Bailey! Dave didn't ever cut many sessions as a leader – but when he did, they really cooked hard – with a quality level and sharpness of vision that easily rivals the best on Blue Note or Prestige Records at the time! In fact, this album would have been right at home on either imprint – a smoking session of soulful hardbop, with very long songs that allow plenty of room for solos by players who include Charlie Rouse on tenor, Clark Terry on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, and Horace Parlan on piano – who are all in the group with Dave, alongside bassist Peck Morrison. There's a nicely unbridled feel to the whole set – a real "something extra" that's always made the album a treasure – and titles include the side-long 17 minute "Blues For JP", plus "Slop Jah", "Little Old Mongoose", and "Evad Smurd". LP, Vinyl record album

A group here that features some key members from the American avant scene, but whose standout member might well be pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland – who contributed two originals to the set, and whose work on the keys seems to really direct the energy of this session that features fresh interpretations of tunes by Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk! The setting is quite a different one for saxophonist Keefe Jackson, but he's superb throughout – blowing tenor and sopranino sax at a level that has all the angular tones and inventive spirit that players like Steve Lacy or Charlie Rouse brought to their work in the Monk generation – but with all the freer qualities that live up to Keefe's legacy too! The rest of the group is great too – Joshua Abrams reminding us what a swinging bassist he can be, and Mikel Patrick Avery on drums – really punctuating the tunes nicely, on selections that include "Bemsha Swing", "The Happenings", "Epistrophy", and "Gotta Get Some Sleep – plus Hoogland originals "Wimpel" and "Aanhanguis". LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite Thelonious Monk albums ever – a bare bones, no nonsense session that's filled with great work from tenorist Charlie Rouse! The record's filled with everything that's great about the Monk/Rouse team in these years – an incredible interplay between sax and piano, served up over the sorts of angular tunes that Monk had been putting forth for years, but somehow at a level that's even more perfect, more "Monkish" than before! Other members of the group are Butch Warren on bass and Ben Riley on drums – and titles include "Lulu's Back In Town", "Memories Of You", "Brake's Sake", "Stuffy Turkey", and "Shuffle Boil". LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic work from Thelonious Monk – a superbly-recorded live set from early 60s Paris – done with his legendary quartet with Charlie Rouse on tenor! The music here is wonderful – tracks that are often quite long, and stretched out nicely from the Columbia Records material by the group – with especially long improvisations by Monk that really reignite our respect for his genius – and the kind of soulful solos from Rouse that are always a perfect match! The bass of John Ore is beautifully recorded too – maybe even more powerful here than usual – and Frankie Dunlop completes the group with wonderfully deft work on drums. Titles include "Well You Needn't", "Jackie-ing", "Hackensack", and "Rhythm A Ning". LP, Vinyl record album

Rare live material by Monk – recorded in Tokyo in 1963, and for many years a set that was unavailable to the rest of the world on record! The date's a great one – and features the classic Columbia quartet with Charlie Rouse on tenor, Butch Warren on bass, and Frankie Dunlop on drums – that impeccable group that provided Monk with such a strong platform for a number of years, and really helped focus and advance his ideas. Rouse is especially wonderful, and he gets a lot of freedom on the record to work out these complicated solos that differ from some of his tighter work on some of the Monk studio albums of the time The set covers 2 LPs – and titles include "Panonica", "Evidence", "Bemsha Swing", "Epistrophy", "Hackensack", and "Blue Monk". LP, Vinyl record album

The first-ever issue of this rare live set from the legendary Thelonious Monk Quartet of the 60s – the same group that cut some incredible albums for Columbia Records, sounding equally great here in a concert setting in Paris! The group features tremendous tenor work from Charlie Rouse – a player who can be deeply soulful, but also hit all the right angles to match Monk's modern piano lines – as important to Thelonious as the alto sax of Paul Desmond was to Dave Brubeck! And like Brubeck's quartet at the time, the rhythm players here are also key – the fantastic John Ore on bass, and the great Frankie Dunlop on drums – two players who hit all the right spots along the way, and match Monk's energy perfectly. Titles include "Criss Cross", "Epistrophy", "Bye Ya", "Monk's Dream", and a "Drum Solo". LP, Vinyl record album