Thelonious Monk - Monk 39;s Music

[Diante Scharsch]

Capturingthe essence of music in the recording studio is something of a black art. The late Norwegian audio engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug, known for his great work with the record label ECM on several hundred recordings, once explained to me a key element of his tradecraft. Many engineers, he said, would first place microphones in approximately the right positions, then hit the mixing console and work with equalization and level adjustments to achieve a good, balanced sound. Kongshaug, in contrast, would leave every setting flat on the console, going back and forth between the control room and the studio, working solely with fine tuning microphone placements and listening to the musicians, until he had the sound he wanted. Then, and only then, would he start twiddling knobs and pushing faders, from a much higher base level of audio fidelity.

Jan, You're right on about the mono being the way to go with this album. Monk is my favorite jazz musician and Monk's Music is one of my three favorite Monk albums. I currently own two pressings of it. The Analog Productions 2 12" 45's and an early OJC reissue. The Analog Productions is in stereo, the OJC is mono. I much prefer the mono, mastered by George Horn, from the original mono tapes I believe. The mono blows away the stereo--it sounds terrific.Thanks for spotlighting this album. Who other than Monk would start one of the greatest jazz albums ever with a one minute hymn, played only by the horns? And who other than monk would choose to include a take with two false starts by Coleman Hawkins? BTW IMO Hawk's rendition here of the sublime Ruby My Dear cuts Coltrane's version with Monk.

"The ERC was very, very expensive at the outset, sold out almost immediately, and is being flipped for obscene amounts on Discogs."...... it hasn't been flipped..... yet, ,,,,They are asking a lot but none have sold

Note: The mono version of Monk's Music can be had in the AP box Riverside Monk box set as well as in the Milestone twofer overseen by Orrin Keepnews. I have both and just listened to the Milestone--its version of Monk's Music is real mono.

Not sure if they had a tube mastering chain at Acoustech, did they? The one of Doug Sax? That would explain some advantages of the AP45 series over the newer 33 versions of KG (inspite of his upgraded SS chain)

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