The Thelonious Monk Quartet ‎– Straight No Chaser 180g Audiophile Vinyl

If you’re new to the world of Thelonious Monk, Monk’s Dream is a great place to start to discover the legendary jazz talent’s musical approach and compositional prowess. It shows off everything that made the man a singular talent in the jazz world. I would certainly recommend an eventual exploration of the important albums from earlier in his career, in particular his groundbreaking Blue Note sessions on Genius of Modern Music Volumes 1 & 2 (although the savvy purchase would be the 2-LP set The Complete Genius from 1976), his classic Riverside recordings Brilliant Corners and Monk’s Music and finally the near-perfect Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins on Prestige. A collection with those historical recordings and Monk’s Dream leaves you with the core Monk LPs that are essential to any respectable jazz collection, and one that sets you up perfectly to fill in the blanks with everything else (especially his solo recordings) that Thelonious Monk had to offer the jazz world.

The Tracks:

Side 1
1. Locomotive
2. I Didn’t Know About You

Side 2
1. Green Chimneys
2. Straight, No Chaser

Side 3
1. Japanese Folk Song

Side 4
1. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
2. We See