Thelonious Monk Plays.   Prestige Lp 189 with Percy Heath and Art Blakey. (1954 Session). Tracks are: “Work”, “Nutty”, “Blue Monk”. “Just a Gigalo”.

Work — Only recorded once, in a trio setting on September 22, 1954 (Prestige PRLP 189), Work is a dissonant, difficult, wild melodic ride that artists have been willing to take. The title speaks for itself. Besides Monk’s version of Work, for which he alone is responsible for stating the melody, one of the few musicians to take up the challenge was soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, who recorded it on his debut album (Prestige 7125) in November of 1957

Nutty — First recorded on September 22, 1954, in a trio setting with Percy Heath (bass) and Art Blakey (drums), “Nutty”  was among Monk’s more popular tunes. Perhaps the most famous recording of it is with John Coltrane, July 1957 (Jazzland JLP[9]46). A few writers have strangely tried to link the title to Monk’s alleged state of mind (!), but any such claims betrays an ignorance of the “hip”  lingo of the day. In the 1940s and 50s (and even later), “nutty”  commonly meant “excellent”  or “cool” -like “insane,”  “mad,”  and “crazy.

Blue Monk — Monk recorded “Blue Monk”  more than any other composition besides “”ËœRound Midnight.”  His first recording dates back to September 22, 1954 (Prestige PRLP 189 LP7027).   Abbey Lincoln added lyrics and recorded it under the title Monkery’s the Blues. Monk himself was summoned to the studio to hear Lincoln’s version and to get his blessings. He approved.

In the early 1950s Monk recorded four albums for Prestige. In 1953 Prestige released two 10-inch LPs, Thelonious Monk Trio (PRLP-142) and Thelonious Monk Quintet with Sonny Rollins and Julius Watkins (PRLP-166), the latter his trio (with drums and bass) augmented by Rollins’ tenor sax and Watkins’ French horn. In 1954 Prestige released two more 10-inch LPs, Thelonious Monk Quintet (PRLP-180), and Thelonious Monk Trio (PRLP-189). The material on these four 10-inch LPs was repackaged and reissued by Prestige on a series of 12-inch LPs in 1956 and 1957 (Thelonious Monk, PRLP-7027; Monk, PRLP-7053; Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins, PRLP-7075), which were themselves reissued with new titles and catalog numbers starting in 1959 and continuing into the mid-1960s (as Monk’s Moods, PRLP-7159, a reissue of 7027; Work, PRLP-7169, a reissue of 7075; and We See, PRLP-7245, a reissue of 7053). (We See was later again reissued as The Golden Monk, PRLP-7363; Monk’s Moods as The High Priest, PRLP-7508; and Work as The Genius of Thelonious Monk, PRST-7656 ““ in “electronically rechanneled”  fake stereo.)

Notes courtesy Robin D.G. Kelley.

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