Saturday, April 17, 2010
Record Store Day
Record Store Day has grown into a pretty big deal in just three years. It's a celebration of those round, vinyl things. But mainly it promotes the independent music store, most of which sell a variety of music-related stuff - old & new records, CDs, tees, turntables, zines, Zig-Zags. Record Store Day features in-store live performances, special releases & downloads.
In honor of the day, here's one of my favorite records never released on CD, Pure Monk, a 1973 two disk collection of Thelonious Monk solo piano tracks from his '50s Riverside LPs, compiled by original producer Orrin Keepnews, with fine liner notes. Two sides of Monk originals & two sides of covers - Monk's taste in songs was peculiar at times. Everything is available on CDs & downloads, but not in this package. I may have received the album as a gift. It was revelatory to me to hear Monk break apart & reconstruct an obscure song like "There's Danger In Your Eyes, Cherie," & what he did with Eubie Blake's "Memories of You," & have two takes of "Functional" one after the other, a number I'd known only in band arrangements. It's a composer's intimate diary of ideas & influences. I wonder if, like French composer Oliver Messiaen, Monk listened closely to bird calls. If forced to list ten of the greatest records I ever had - I'm not big on that kind of thing - this would be near the top.
Later, I met & got to know Peter Keepnews, Orrin's son, who is happily married to WFMU DJ Irene Trudel.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
In honor of the day, here's one of my favorite records never released on CD, Pure Monk, a 1973 two disk collection of Thelonious Monk solo piano tracks from his '50s Riverside LPs, compiled by original producer Orrin Keepnews, with fine liner notes. Two sides of Monk originals & two sides of covers - Monk's taste in songs was peculiar at times. Everything is available on CDs & downloads, but not in this package. I may have received the album as a gift. It was revelatory to me to hear Monk break apart & reconstruct an obscure song like "There's Danger In Your Eyes, Cherie," & what he did with Eubie Blake's "Memories of You," & have two takes of "Functional" one after the other, a number I'd known only in band arrangements. It's a composer's intimate diary of ideas & influences. I wonder if, like French composer Oliver Messiaen, Monk listened closely to bird calls. If forced to list ten of the greatest records I ever had - I'm not big on that kind of thing - this would be near the top.Later, I met & got to know Peter Keepnews, Orrin's son, who is happily married to WFMU DJ Irene Trudel.
