Thelonious Monk Trio

Thelonious Monk Trio is an album by jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk featuring his earliest recordings for the Prestige label performed by Monk with Gerry Mapp and Art Blakey or Max Roach and one track with Percy Heath replacing Mapp.^[2] The Allmusic review by Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. describes the album as "Intimate, intense, and inspired, Thelonious Monk Trio offers 35 minutes of professional musicians practicing their craft".^[3] The album contains the earliest recorded version of the jazz standards "Blue Monk" and "Bemsha Swing".

Track listing

All compositions by Thelonious Monk except as indicated

1. "Blue Monk" - 7:39
2. "Just a Gigolo" (Julius Brammer, Irving Caesar, Leonello Casucci) - 3:00
3. "Bemsha Swing" - 3:10
4. "Reflections" - 2:48
5. "Little Rootie Tootie" - 3:06
6. "Sweet and Lovely" (Gus Amheim, Jules LeMare, Harry Tobias) - 3:33
7. "Bye-Ya" - 2:46
8. "Monk's Dream" - 3:07
9. "Trinkle, Tinkle" - 2:49
10. "These Foolish Things" (Harry Link, Holt Marvell, Jack Strachey) - 2:46

• Recorded in New York City on October 15 (tracks 5-8), December 18 (tracks 3, 4, 9 & 10), 1952 and September 22, 1954 (tracks 1 & 2)

Personnel

• Thelonious Monk - piano
• Percy Heath - bass (track 1)
• Art Blakey - drums (tracks 1 & 5-8)
• Gerry Mapp - bass (tracks 5-8)
• Max Roach - drums (tracks 3, 4, 9 & 10)

References