Records and Tapes in Thelonious Monk’s Personal Collection
Below is a selected list of recordings (LPs and reel-to-reel tapes) I found in a storage space holding some of Thelonious and Nellie’s personal belongings. I cannot say when or how they obtained any of these recordings, but Nellie confirmed that they represented part of their personal collection. The fact that a substantial part of Monk’s record collection was destroyed in the first fire, in 1956, explains why most of the recordings listed below were made in the late 1950s and 1960s.
LPs
Cannonball Adderley, The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York (Riverside RLP 404). Orrin wrote liner notes as he did for everything else he produced. The group included Nat Adderley, Yusef Lateef, Joe Zawinul, Sam Jones, and Louis Hayes. It was recorded in January 1962.
Gene Ammons, The Happy Blues (Prestige LP 7039). Recorded in 1956, the band included Art Farmer, Jackie McLean, Duke Jordan, Addison Farmer, Art Taylor, and the percussionist Candido.
Clifford Brown, Memorial Album (Blue Note BLP 1526). One side is from a 1953 date with Gigi Gryce, Charlie Rouse, John Lewis, Percy Heath, and Art Blakey. The other side consists of a studio date with Lou Donaldson, Elmo Hope, Percy Heath, and Philly Joe Jones, also recorded in 1953.
Nat King Cole, Just One of Those Things (Capitol W 903). Full orchestra conducted by Billy May.
John Coltrane, Soultrane (Prestige 7142). Recorded February 1958, Coltrane’s band was comprised of Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor.
Xavier Cugat and the Waldorf Astoria Orchestra, Rhumba with Cugat (Columbia C-54). This is a four-disc set of 78 rpm recordings.
Billy Eckstine, Billy’s Best (Mercury MG 20333). The album was terribly battered and evidently played often. It includes several standards Eckstine was known for, including “A Sunday Kind of Love,” “Nobody’s Heart,” “Where Have You Been,” and “Trust in Me,” which Monk recorded with Clark Terry in 1958.
Billy Eckstine and Quincy Jones, Billy Eckstine and Quincy Jones at Basin Street (Mercury SR 60674). Included here is a medley of Ellington tunes and Duke himself wrote some brief notes on the back of the album praising Eckstine.
Ella Fitzgerald, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (Verve MGV 4001–2). Recorded in 1956.
Dizzy Gillespie, The Greatest of Dizzy Gillespie (RCA Victor LPM 2398). Released in 1961, it includes Monk’s “52nd Street Theme.” Thelonious refers to this LP in his remarks at the New School for Social Research, June 22, 1963 (see Chapter 24).
Ahmad Jamal, Ahmad Jamal (Argo LP 636). Recorded in 1958, Ahmad Jamal’s trio was made up of Vernell Fourier on drums and Israel Crosby on bass. Recorded live at the Spotlite Club in Washington, D.C.
Ahmad Jamal, Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal (Argo LP 2638).
Yusef Lateef, Before Dawn: The Music of Yusef Lateef (Verve, MGV 8217). Recorded in April 1957.
Sonny Rollins, Tenor Madness (Prestige LP 7047). A famous recording made in May 1956; Rollins and John Coltrane play together on the LP, backed by Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones.
Sonny Rollins, Sonny Rollins (Blue Note BLP 1542). Recorded in December 1956, the personnel consisted of Donald Byrd, Wynton Kelly, Gene Ramey, and Max Roach.
Mort Sahl, The Future Lies Ahead (Verve, MG V-15002). Comedian, considered very political.
REEL-TO-REEL TAPES
Vladimir Horowitz, Playing the Music of Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Liszt (Columbia Stereo Tape Masterworks, Stereo disc KS 6371).
David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, Geroge Szell, and the Cleveland Orchestra, Brahms: Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 (Angel M 36032).
Clifford Curzon with the London Symphony Orchestra, Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 (London LCL 80126).
Karl Richter, conductor, Johann Sebastian Bach, Mass in B-Minor (AR 3177).