# Thelonious Monk together with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/10/01/thelonious-monk-together-with-tenor-saxophonist-charlie-rouse-video-photos/
- Published: 2020-10-01T00:12:53+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**There are no bad recordings of pianist Thelonious Monk together with tenor saxophonist
Charlie Rouse. Well, maybe two—when they were in a top-notch group assembled in 
the late 1940s to back a so-so vocalist named Frankie Passions, who recorded two
lackluster pop songs. **

But starting in the fall of 1958, at New York’s Five Spot, Monk and Rouse began 
a working and recording relationship that lasted until 1969. Fortunately for us,
most of their sessions were live.

[⌊Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 8.43.00 PM⌉⌊Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 8.43.00 PM⌉[
 Recently,
a new entry was released in the Monk-Rouse gig canon called _Palo Alto_. The CD 
and vinyl came out in June on Impulse while the download was released last week 
by Legacy. The previously unissued concert was captured at a performance Monk gave
the afternoon of  October 27, 1968 at Palo Alto High School in California. A wise
janitor asked if he could record the gig if he tuned the piano. Danny Scher, a senior
at the school who produced concerts there, wisely let him. Danny, of course, would
go on to work with concert impresario Bill Graham as his right-hand man for 24 years.[
Photo above of Thelonious Monk by Lee Tanner, courtesy of Legacy Records]

But there were complications. Unsure if Monk would appear, Danny called him up before
the scheduled performance. Here’s the story from Danny’s liner notes…

_[⌊Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 8.45.51 PM⌉⌊Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 8.45.51 PM⌉[
 People were
skeptical that Monk would ever show up, so two days before the concert I called 
him at San Francisco’s Jazz Workshop where he was performing and I wasn’t old enough
to enter. I had never received a fully executed contract. 
[Photo above of Danny
Scher from YouTube]

_Monk said he knew nothing about the concert and wondered how he would even get 
to Palo Alto and back for his evening Jazz Workshop performance. I said that my 
brother, Les, was old enough to drive to San Francisco and could pick up him and
his band and return them in time for that evening’s performance.

[⌊MV5BNDUxNDA3NDEtNDMzYy00YTI1LTkyZDUtYjM0YjgwOGJmNTc3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjk5MDQ5NjM@.
_V1_SY1000_CR0 0 1316 1000_AL_⌉⌊MV5BNDUxNDA3NDEtNDMzYy00YTI1LTkyZDUtYjM0YjgwOGJmNTc3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjk5MDQ5NjM@.
_V1_SY1000_CR0 0 1316 1000_AL_⌉[
 Monk agreed to have Les picking them up and drive
them back. What you hear on the new album is what took place after they got out 
of the car. The tracks are _Ruby, My Dear, Well, You Needn’t_ (with a terrific arco
solo by bassist Larry Gales and a crisp drum solo by Ben Riley), _Don’t Blame Me,
Blue Monk, Epistrophy_ and _I Love You Sweetheart of All My Dreams,_ which the quartet
had recorded in 1964 for Columbia’s _Monk_ album. [Photo above of Charlie Rouse 
and Thelonious Monk from IMDB]

The sound of this new release is excellent, and the quartet’s playing is assertive,
outgoing and generous. Monk’s piano, in particular, was jumping, with notes going
off like packs of firecrackers. Rouse, Gales and Riley also played with extra edge.
One wonders if the group’s shoulders leaning into the music had something to do 
with Danny and his family.

[⌊Paly-678x381⌉⌊Paly-678x381⌉[
 Few tickets had been sold by the time Danny’s brother,
Les, returned from San Francisco with the quartet, the bass sticking out the window.
The people who weren’t convinced Monk would show lingered in the parking lot until
they saw the band roll up. Then they reached into their pockets. “People went to
the box office and bought tickets,” Danny writes. “The show sold out, but Monk was
hungry. My parents went across the street and brought back food for him and the 
band.” [Photo above of Palo Alto High School]

Danny and his family were those kind of people. As a result, we now know where the
Thelonious Monk Quartet was on an afternoon in October of 1968 and how great the
band sounded. I’ll have to ask Danny what they had for lunch.

A mini-doc about the album…

![Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 8.42.23 PM](https://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834026bde956e59200c-
500wi)

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