![thelonious monk album thelonious monk album](https://i.postimg.cc/TPjd9Yy6/Thelonious-Monk-Genius-of-Modern-Music-Vol-1-2001.jpg)
![thelonious monk album thelonious monk album](https://images.hhv.de/catalog/shop_detail_zoom/00753/753410.jpg)
That said, the recording has a dry, boxed-in character that, for better or worse, defines the listening experience. Riley’s drums in particular swell to loud enough volume that they stress the microphones, which creates the illusion that the listener is seated near the drumset and, thus, up close and personal with the musicians onstage. On the contrary-many, many acoustic nuances shine through: the greasy resonance as bassist Larry Gales scrapes his strings with a bow during his solo on a 13-minute version of “Well, You Needn’t” (with Monk himself humming along), the variety of timbres and colors as drummer Ben Riley’s toms pop and cymbals hiss, etc. Which is not to say that you can’t hear every instrument clearly.
![thelonious monk album thelonious monk album](https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5f60eeea24393cd94f4e85de/16:9/w_2072,h_1165,c_limit/Brody-TheloniousMonkPaloAlto.jpg)
Monk surmises that his father’s quartet was so well-oiled by 1968 that “they could set up in a phone booth and sound like the records.” Well, Palo Alto doesn’t quite sound like it was recorded in a phone booth-it would be worth hearing even if it had been-but listeners should know ahead of time that the fidelity level here falls into bootleg range. The story behind Palo Alto, which could easily fill this review, oozes with charm and social context, both beautifully captured in liner notes that are worth the price of admission alone, even if you’ve watched the promotional mini-documentary released by the label. Monk, who was surprised to discover that his father had even played a high school at any point in his much-heralded career. At that point, he contacted Monk’s son, drummer T.S. Palo Alto is the document of that performance, which is finally seeing the light of day after Scher, who’d forgotten that the school custodian recorded the show, found the tape in his attic some 15 years ago. By that time, Monk’s jazz-giant stature had been firmly established, so it was a major coup that a plucky teenager named Danny Scher was able to snag Monk’s quartet for an appearance at his local high school. Located in present-day Silicon Valley, the Bay Area city of Palo Alto was a most unlikely place to catch a Sunday-matinee performance by Thelonious Monk back in 1968.