Live At The Jazz Workshop (Complete) - Thelonious Monk

Advantages: Intimate, excellent recording of the master of jazz piano alone doing what he does best.
Disadvantages: There's just not enough of it.

...Thelonious Monk is unquestionably one of the greatest musicians of the last century. Joyous, wild, insane, romantic, ecstatic, otherwordly, desperate, monumental - and that's just his facial expressions. There are musicians who play their instruments, then there are musicians who just play, the instrument and the musician each being and becoming each other's instrument. Monk is one of these, and you won't find a better example of his greatness than on this record. Recorded in just a few days, every track here sounds like it burst out the sticky centre of a donut the size of the galaxy at the beginning of time, imploding with wonderous uncontrollably joy at the very fact of existence. The recordings themselves are so crisp and balanced that you can hear Monk humming and tapping along as he plays the piano with his whole body, somehow... Read review

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Advantages: It's Bowie
Disadvantages: Another version to buy!

...I feel I must say sorry to anyone who has read this already, for some strange reason my first posting for this album has moved to the wrong place so I am re-posting it sorry Milt This is only official audio record of one of the most theatrical and elaborate tours ever attempted by David Bowie in the 70’s. As the front photograph of the album cover shows David Bowie had become ashen and painfully thin, his use of cocaine had become excessive and very obvious. This 2005 reincarnation of this performance from the “Diamond Dogs” 1974 tour is a welcome addition to the live recordings of Bowie, this time the CD has a stereo mix which has been derived from the 5.1 surround mix which is available on the DVD audio version of this recording, which incidentally is a single disc so no having to change discs like this version, call me old... Read review

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Advantages: amazing interpretation of a classical piece
Disadvantages: Let me think about that.....hmmmmmm...........aaaaaaaaa...no

..., John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Jimi Hendrix if he was not dead and many many others that I would need pages to enumerate them(actually 10 lines would be sufficient but anyway). It is in the late 50's when Miles after he introduced the cool jazz idiom as a kind of an answer to the hard-bop idiom of the time, he decides to reorchestrate the whole "Concerto d' Aranjuez" for guitar, by Rodrigo, in a more Miles way. His main assistant? Famous jazz orchestrator and composer Gill Evans, not to be mistaken with the other great jazz pianist Bill Evans, who also as mentioned above collaborated with Miles from times to times. The result is a completely personal interpretation of a classical piece of music, that for sure stands at least as equal to the original concerto. Gill's orchestration throughout is ideal(I love those bell chimes... Read review

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