On this night in 1958, Riverside Records producer Orrin Keepnews dragged bis recording equipment across the Hudson to the Five Spot Cafe. To record Thelonious Monk for a live album. With the restoration of his cabaret card, Monk had been playing at the Five Spot for about a year and was in the midst of a second residency there.  For some reason, the recordings were deemed lacking. They sound good to me, but I am partial to Monk's work with Griffin on sax. Keepnews returned a month  later  an recorded two sets, from which the albums Thelonious in Action and Misterioso were released. This set shares "Blues Five Spot", "Evidence", "In Walked Bud"*, and "Epistrophy (Theme)" with those two albums. It adds "'Round Midnight", "Bye-Ya", and "Unidentified Piano Solo" - which some identify as "Sweet Stranger"- the sources are unclear. *Bud Powell: it was probably Bud's packet of heroin that police found...

After Ginger Baker died last year I watched the documentary Beware of Mr. Baker . It's great, with a surprise ending that should surprise no one. The film led me to look into his jazz recordings, including two albums recorded with Bill Frisell: Going Back Home and Falling Off the Roof . Excellent albums, both of them, not only for the drumming but for Frisell's guitar. He has a great tone, and an ability to play a melody line without it sounding like Muzak. Because the two Thelonious Monk covers that lead off this playlist caught my ear, I looked through Frisell's catalog, both as leader and sideman, and found about an album's worth of other covers. A wider-ranging search yielded albums by both Andy Summers and the Kronos Quartet (with Ron Carter) and tracks by Charlie Hunter, NRBQ, and a tribute album by reggae pianist Monty Alexander. So, to mark Ginger's passing, and Monk's 103rd birthday later this week...

The clubs have yet to reopen. For this week's concert, I suggest we visit the original Five Spot Cafe'  - which was demolished in 1962 - to catch the Thelonious Monk Quartet on August 7, 1958 . Get a bottle of something nice, and make plans for dinner. It is serious jazz, but of the type that can serve as background music. Last week's jazz offering, from It's About That Time: Miles Davis at the Filmore East , was the type of jazz that elicits "the question" from The Wife: "Honey...what are we listening to?" It's not really a question...she's actually telling me to turn this shit off...and during OUR time I actively choose music with an aim toward avoiding it. The things we do for love. This week's show was recorded during Monk's second six-month residency at the club. The band included Roy Haynes on drums, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass and Johnny Griffin on tenor sax. Griffin had played several of the tunes on Art Blakey's Ja...