May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins Passes Away at 95
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
Columbia/Legacy Jazz will release four Thelonious Monk reissues, reworked and supplemented with previously unreleased tracks, on August 19.
As a follow-up to albums re-released last year, the 20-year anniversary of the pianist’s death, Orrin Keepnews has resurrected more 1960s Monk from the Columbia vaults comprising Criss-Cross, It’s Monk’s Time, Solo Monk and Underground.
Each album contains the original liner notes and cover art along with new notes from Keepnews and essays by Dick Katz or Peter Keepnews.
Criss-Cross (1963), Monk’s second Columbia release, with Charlie Rouse on tenor, John Ore on bass and drummer Frankie Dunlop, includes a solo version of “Don’t Blame Me” along with alternate takes of “Tea For Two” and “Eronel.”
Eleven months and two concert albums later, Monk’s third Columbia studio album, It’s Monk’s Time (1964), had Butch Warren on bass and Ben Riley on drums mixing originals and standards. The reissue has three bonus tracks including a complete version of the closing “Epistrophy” and an alternate take of “Shuffle Boil.”
Solo Monk (1965) originally included 12 tracks, five of which were new to Monk’s repertoire at the time. The reissue has 31 minutes of additional music including seven alternate takes from the same sessions and two tracks, “Introspection” and “Darn That Dream,” originally issued on the 1979 double-LP Always Know.
Monk’s final Columbia LP, Underground (1968), has alternate takes of Monk compositions “Boo Boo’s Birthday,” “Ugly Beauty” and “Thelonious.” Jon Hendricks also appears, improvising lyrics on “In Walked Bud.”
Columbia’s long campaign of Monk reissues has helped to preserve the innovative music he made over 40 years ago. As Monk friend Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter wrote in the original notes for Criss-Cross, Monk “is agreed by one and all to be synonymous with ‘genius’.”
For more information, go to www.legacyrecordings.com or www.thelonious-monk.com
Onstage, Rollins would move about restlessly, thrusting his tenor sax in the air as he blew.
May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
To the world, James Blood Ulmer was a legend, a visionary and a musical force whose sound was distinctive and unique. To his family, he was their teacher, their storyteller and a source of strength.
Jun 9, 2026 10:54 AM
With deep sorrow and profound love, we announce the passing of James Blood Ulmer, a boldly innovative guitarist,…
How best to mark Miles Davis’ centennial? By allowing the stories to flow, and cross-discussions to happen.
May 26, 2026 10:40 AM
Editor’s Note: The iconic trumpeter, composer and bandleader Miles Davis would have turned 100 today (May 26, 2026).…
Clockwise from top left, Mary Halvorson, Patricia Brennan, Adam O’Farrill, Keith Jarrett’s At the Deer Head Inn: The Complete Recordings, Sheila Jordan and Jaki Byard.
Jul 16, 2026 1:34 PM
The DownBeat Critics Poll never ceases to amaze! And the 74th Edition offered plenty of accolades for poll veterans and…
Ibrahim was an early jazz acolyte, studying the music via 78s he would buy from soldiers stationed in South Africa — who also gave him the nickname “Dollar.”
Jun 30, 2026 3:19 PM
Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, the NEA Jazz Master from South Africa who helped fuse the folk music of his home country with…
