Impulse Vinyl & CDs

Review: It's 52 years since Thelonius Monk played the show at a California high school which makes up this new long player on Impulse. It happened after a 16 year old student at the school held a concert to raise some money for its International Club, and some how managed to persuade Thelonious Monk's manager that his charge should be the headliner. Monk obliged and turned up with his quartet, and in this recording you can hear every single detail from the creaks of the piano bench to Ben Riley's swishing hi-hats on 'Ruby, My Dear.' The backstory alone makes this one an essential purchase, while of course the music itself isn't too shabby, either.