Best Thelonious Monk compilation

Which is considered to be the better starter for Monk's work: Essential or Ken Burns Jazz? Aside from the differing track listings, how does the mastering of these two titles compare?

 

Neither is really optimal. I don't own either of these, but I looked at the title listing. The Burns set is at best a sampler, pulling from different periods of Monk's career. It is hard for a one cd set to do justice to a 3 decade plus career. "Essential" looks to be only from his Columbia years covering 1962 to 1968. Not a bad thing, but somewhat misleading as Monk did important work on Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside before he went over to Columbia. Arguably, his work on Riverside was his best stuff.

What you probably want and that doesn't exist is a 2 or 3 cd anthology covering the four main periods of Monk's career plus key contributions he made as a sideman.

One thing about Monk: he tended to repeat himself, so if you buy one of his Riverside records and one of his Columbias, you are likely to hear him do many of the same songs. If you want an introduction to Monk, you would do better to get a few of his key Riverside or Prestige dates, like Brilliant Corners, Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane or Thelonious himself along with one of his live dates for Columbia like Live at the It club.

 

I will keep my eyes on this thread because I own a lot of Monk, but no good compilations.

 

I agree, especially with the live date recommendation. As a recommendation I'd go with Live At The Jazz Workshop.

 

I'm normally all in favor of comps and am not an album snob, even for my favorite musicians, like Monk. That said, I am not aware of any solid one-and-done Monk comps, so you'll have to go it by record label.

1. Blue Note

His first major recordings as a leader, recorded as singles, so the tracks are short. This'll do ya:

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Blue-Not...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1231944954&sr=1-2

2. Prestige

He recorded a few sessions for Prestige, but they're honestly not essential. Yes, there are some great recordings here, but since this thread is an exercise in minimalism, we can skip this phase for now...

3. Riverside

His best music, as he recorded with many different people, and was able to stretch out his ideas in different and exciting ways. One really is just better off getting some albums here, and the essential are:

- Brilliant Corners (title track is probably his most ambitious composition ever, and it has Sonny Rollins and by far the best version of some of his "standards" ever recorded)
- Monk's Music (Coleman Hawkins AND John Coltrane here)
- Misterioso (live, and w/ Johnny Griffin)
- Five By Monk By Five (has Charlie Rouse, the tenor player he'd play with for the rest of his life, and Thad Jones, so you get the extra horn here).

I'm sure many would disagree with my choices, but I think these represent both the pinnacle of Monk's work as well as the greatest variety, and there are only 4 albums, which comes out to about 2 modern CDs in terms of time.

4. Columbia

As others have mentioned this material is a lot less varied than his earlier work because he was using steady quartet. There is a 3 CD box set compilation

http://www.amazon.com/Columbia-Year...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1231945453&sr=1-1

but I used to own it and didn't like it. They sacrificed some better versions of tunes in favor of previously unreleased material and it's just a sloppy, misdirected set.

Honestly I would recommend just sticking with the albums Monk's Dream, Criss-Cross, and Straight No Chaser for essential Monk on Columbia.

 

I like the thought of sampling each of his eras versus trying to find a compilation.

For live Columbia era, in addition to the Jazz Workshop, the Tokyo and It Club recordings are very good.

I've been listening to his late recordings on Black Lion recently, and enjoy them too. Solo or trio recordings with Art Blakey.

 

I agree with Mike B all the way. Monk's Music and Brilliant Corners are the albums I point people to as introductions to Monk when they ask. Monk's Music (in mono) probably has the edge as my personal favorite of his albums, for whatever that's worth.

 

I should have titled my thread "Monk on a budget for a Newbie!!" You are absolutely right about the 2 or 3 cd anthology being what I had hoped for. I did see the two mentioned one disc comps at a very good price ($8.99 each) which is what prompted my question about the two.

Thanks for all the good suggestions everyone (especially Mike B.). I'll now have a good reference for future purchases and a wish list for my birthday.