As for Monk, he was never particularly political, but you have to wonder what he meant when he ended Palo Alto by saying, “We have to get to work. Listen to the clarity of Gales’ bowed solo on “Well, You Needn’t” (a feat, given the tempo) or the way Monk evolves from old-fashioned stride to jarring pointillism on “Blue Monk”: Here was a dialogue between tradition and evolution, as funny, lively, and contentious as any dialogue between warring parties with something at stake.ĭanny Scher graduated, of course, though after something like booking Monk, he likely had big plans on the horizon. Performed with Monk’s longest-running quartet (tenor Charlie Rouse, bassist Larry Gales, and drummer Ben Riley), the music here is relaxed but lived-in, a survey of some of Monk’s best-known-and best-loved-material executed with a back-of-the-hand intimacy that gives way to startling improvisation. Listening back now, though, the sense is of an artist sticking to his guns, changing not with the times so much as with the winds blowing inside his own private world. The perception at the time was that Monk was on the downslope, a vibrant eccentric whose mix of old-time charm and modern dissonance was being eclipsed by the radicalism of younger-or, in the case of contemporaries like Miles and Coltrane, more strident-players. Released more than 50 years after its initial recording (made by the school’s hobbyist-audio-engineer janitor, no less), Palo Alto isn’t just a bright spot from a dark national moment (including the shootings of both Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy), it’s one of the best live recordings in Monk’s catalogue, as good a single-serving testament to his wit and genius as exists. Scher’s ambitions were big: Not only did he want to bring one of the greatest minds in modern jazz to a high school, but he hoped that such a show might foster racial goodwill between the mostly white community of Palo Alto and the mostly Black community of neighbouring East Palo Alto.
And yet, the music played by the quartet may be some of the best ever captured from him live.In 1968, an enterprising high school student named Danny Scher got the notion to invite Thelonious Monk to come play at Palo Alto High School in Northern California.
RW: It was suggested in another article I read that, for Thelonious, because of lack of income on the home front and any support from his record label-and some personal health issues-that Palo Alto show was more about getting the $500 payment than any political activism desires. However, it's significant because, given its timing, location, and level of performance, it's clear the band was in top shape and Monk was at his best. Originally planned for release on July 31, 2020. Analog tape restoration by Kevin Przybylowski at Sonicraft A2DX Lab, Red Bank, NJ. I didn’t find out about its existence until about 2005 or so. Recorded at Palo Alto High School on October 27, 1968. In June, Impulse Records announced the first-ever release of Thelonious Monk’s Palo Alto.The album features a recording of Monk’s historic concert at Palo Alto High School on Octo. Monk (TS): Unfortunately, I had just finished high school, and was completely unaware of this concert.
What is your recollection of why this concert turned out to be significant now 53 years later? 27th, 1968, the day your father and his quartet came to East Palo Alto to perform a concert at the high school. Robert Walker (RW): T.S., tell us about Oct. I know my music can help bring people together, and that’s what is important.”