The Thelonious Monk Quartet – Monk’s Dream – Vinyl Review
Vinyl surface noise: Side A: 5; Side B: 5-
Dynamic Range: 5-
Stereo Imaging: 4+
Image depth/perspective: 4-
Overall frequency response: 4+
Please see here for my comments on reviewing albums.
Track List:
Side One
- Monk’s Dream
- Body And Soul
- Bright Mississippi
- Five Spot Blues
Side Two
- Bolivar Blues
- Just a Gigolo
- Bye-Ya
- Sweet And Lovely
Musicians:
- Thelonius Monk – Piano
- Charlie Rouse – Tenor Sax
- John Ore – Bass
- Frankie Dunlop – Drums
Monk’s Dream, his earliest Columbia album, was originally recorded in October and November of 1962 at Columbia 30th Street Studio, NY, NY. It was originally released in March of 1963 and with the aid of Columbia’s extensive resources and promotion of Monks work, has caused Monk’s Dream to become the best-selling album of his lifetime.
Recognized as one of the most inventive pianists of any musical genre, Monk achieved a startlingly original sound that even his most devoted followers have been unable to successfully imitate. His musical vision was both ahead of its time and deeply rooted in tradition, spanning the entire history of the music from the stride masters of James P. Johnson and Willie The Lion Smith to the tonal freedom and kinetics of the avant-garde. He also shares with Edward Duke Ellington the distinction of being one of the centuries greatest American composers.
This stereo rerelease is limited to 2500 copies, was mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio from the original analog master tapes and pressed by RTI on 180gram vinyl .
The album is available in several other formats, and on other labels, most of which as of 2/19/2021, are backordered. This latest 180gram audiophile rerelease is on the Impex label – CATALOG: IMP6014
Reviewed using my Hana SL, Lentek Head Amp and MX-VYNL pre-amp.
See here for my vinyl review playback hardware.
After many months of not listening to any vinyl I was in a real rush to hear this pressing, so I bypassed my usual Nitty Gritty cleaning routine (see update). The disc was very shinny and surprisingly clean, with no observable dust particles, but with a few specs of what looked like tiny white paper fragments on both sides which were easily removed with my anti-static brush.
My collection of vinyl already had a few older “stereo” Columbia albums so I was prepared for what I was about to hear. For those new to this older style of stereo recording, a quick insight. While the Columbia recording engineers used a superb array of microphones to capture the instruments sound, stereo microphone techniques were not highly refined. What we have here is a mono mix for each instrument, the kit, the piano (see later comments), the sax and acoustic bass that are then panned into position in the stereo image. For this recording the kit is hard left, the piano hard right except on S1T2 and S2T2, the sax sits right out front, dead center, with the acoustic double bass level such that it generally appears right behind the sax except where it creeps to the front when there is no sax playing and a couple of short breaks. This tended to leave small “empty” spaces in the image mid left/center and mid right/center. Studio isolation was not high as with careful listening instrumental “bleed” could be heard in both the center and right channels for the kit and kick drum respectively. These latter issues are not really any distraction from the excellent sound and performance.
The images were very stable but possessed little natural depth which is enhanced by some low level reverb that also adds a little warmth to the sound. I assume that this reverb is natural from the studio acoustics rather than from any EMT plate. With only four tracks per side and widely spaced grooves the cutting level is good.
Despite such an old recording its dynamics are very good, showing no mid-range hardness or stridency, had good top end detail and was very open and clean. Clearly mastering engineer Kevin Gray did a very good job of getting everything off the analog tape master and into the cutting head. While RTI produced an excellent 180gram vinyl pressing with very low surface noise, no clicks or pops, was ruler flat and virtually perfectly concentric. I had absolutely no tracking issues.
Most of the album is all about Thelonius Monks’ sax performance, which is excellent. The sax had enough presence to “appear” in my room but surprisingly no notable reed, wind or key noise was heard. The sax creating a lovely mellow tone with a nice brassy edge that was on occasions a little hard without becoming strident. To be honest I cannot pick any solo/break as all his playing was tremendous, reminding me of my of my much younger years, when my father would practice his alto and baritone sax’s around our home preparing for his orchestral performances.
The bass was very tight and clean, being just a little short in the lower registers and showed no coloration. Very little finger or neck noise could be heard but on several occasions I did hear what sounded to be a string slapping against John Ores’ nails. The bass tended to stay mostly in the background, never getting lost in the mix, but creeping to the front when there was no sax and provided a short solo on S2T1, that had very good room presence.
The piano was mostly panned hard right except on S1T2 and S2T2 when a stereo microphone technique was used to place its image between the left and right speakers. This image was very open and almost good enough to see the left and right hand keyboard parts creating a very good room presence. The piano had good dynamics and a bright mellow tone with no key or damper action being audible. As with the saxophone parts excellent solos and breaks abound on virtually every track.
Finally, the kit that was always hard panned to the left hand speaker has a very pleasing open acoustic sound. The cymbals and hi-hat were both well detailed and clean and maybe needed a little more “sparkle” at the very top end. The snare has a nice snap and short ring with good dynamics. The toms were tight with a well damped hollow short resonance, with the kick drum providing a well damped dull thud with no beater noise. It was notable that due to studio “bleed” the kick drum could also be heard dead center behind the double bass. Rim shots and brush work were open, clean and transparent, with the studios reverb being clearly audible around the kit. Unfortunately there were no extended solos/breaks to speak of other than S2T1 and S2T3.
UPDATE: I cleaned the album using my Nitty Gritty and the surface noise was even lower on side B, now rating at 5.
Moving on some fifty nine years, todays modern technology and techniques of record production certainly seemed to get everything off those old analog tapes and into the grooves. Kevin and RTI did an excellent job of this audiophile rerelease.
I cannot imagine a better sounding (vinyl) version of this album ever being created, unless a single-step pressing is released. If you are into vinyl, jazz and The Thelonious Monk Quartet, this has to be the current definitive vinyl version of Monk’s Dream; buy it before they are all gone. Recommended.
Available on vinyl and SACD from Elusive Disc and Acoustic Sounds.
Available on numbered SACD mastered by Mobile Fidelity from Music Direct.
