Monk - Bremen 1965

Birthday reflection on a project long in the works

Once again, I apologize for my lack of attention to this forum. I do like the idea of Substack but keeping up the energy has been a challenge for me. It is my birthday and I’ll gripe if I want to.

It has been a strange year, culminating with Lindsey and my relocation to Austin, Texas. It is a place I never would have thought to live in. I’m sure it will pose some challenges, especially in the summer, but, so far, there is much to like.

Speaking of which: There is a great club here called Monks Jazz. The proprietor Collin Shook was kind enough to let me take the stage to present a project that I am super excited to be a part of, the vinyl release of jazz great Thelonious Monk’s Bremen 1965 (Sunnyside Records), an archival release of a live performance from 1965 in Bremen, Germany. I was able to play the full release to a sold out room on Monday, December 8th and the reception was great.

Bremen 1965 had a long gestation period. The recording has been known by bootleggers and German jazz radio fans for some time. Sunnyside friend and former Radio Bremen honcho Volker Steppat helped to guide this recording into official release, which as any archival release producer knows takes time and negotiation.

Finally, we have a product. Actually, a few. There is the digital release streaming on all DSPs along with a two CD digipak edition. But Sunnyside finally took the plunge and produced a double LP vinyl release, which I’m especially excited about. To top it off, I was able to provide the liner notes.

A little background: This recording finds Monk on his third trip to Europe and on his first world tour. He had a recent change of labels from Riverside to Columbia Records and had introduced two new rhythm players to his quartet, namely bassist Larry Gales and drummer Ben Riley. His faithful tenor foil remained the great Charlie Rouse.

This recording was made on one of the first nights of the tour: Monday, March 8, 1965. It was recorded in front of a live audience for Radio Bremen in their wonderful and still very much operational Sendesaal performance hall.

For audiophile folks, our mastering engineer Katsuhiko Naito knocked it out of the park.

Based on the reviews, the critics are excited to have this piece of history.

I hope you’ll check it out! It is officially released tomorrow, December 12.

You can nab it at Bandcamp here.