Thelonious Monk. Thelonious Himself .
Original Jazz Classics – OJC-254, Riverside Records – RLP 235
Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue
US, May 13, 2016 / (original 1957)
Jazz, Bop, Post Bop
Original Jazz Classics – OJC-254, Riverside Records – RLP 235
Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue
US, May 13, 2016 / (original 1957)
Jazz, Bop, Post Bop
Original Jazz Classics – OJC-254, Riverside Records – RLP 235
Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue
US, May 13, 2016 / (original 1957)
Jazz, Bop, Post Bop
Thelonious Himself is a studio album by Thelonious Monk released in 1957 by Riverside Records,. It was Monk's fourth album for the label. The album features Monk playing solo piano, except for the final track, "Monk's Mood", which features John Coltrane on tenor saxophone and Wilbur Ware on bass. It was Monk's second solo piano studio album, and it was the first made by an American label and distributed in the United States. (Monk's first extended solo piano recording, Piano Solo, was recorded in Paris during June 1954, initially for the purpose of providing material for a radio broadcast. Monk had also recorded individual solo piano tracks for Prestige and Riverside records during the early and mid 1950s.)
The cover photograph was taken by Paul Weller, and shows Monk in the control room of Reeves Sound Studios (where the album was recorded) seated at a mixing console.
Music critic Robert Christgau said Thelonious Himself is "probably [Monk's] best" solo album, while Down Beat magazine gave it five stars and called it "highly recommended".
