Album of the Day

On May 14 and 15, 1957, Thelonious Monk joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers at Capitol Studios in New York to cut a one-off album for Atlantic Records. Produced by Nesuhi Ertegun, the collection would be Monk’s lone appearance on the label and his only recording with the Jazz Messengers, an ever-evolving collective led by drummer Art Blakey, who’s joined on the album by Johnny Griffin on tenor saxophone, Bill Hardman on trumpet and bassist Spanky DeBrest. The headliners had recorded together often in the decade leading up to these sessions, making the set a beautiful union of Monk’s melodies with Blakey’s unshakable sense of swing on stellar versions of “In Walked Bud,” “I Mean You,” “Blue Monk” and others. Now available, ART BLAKEY’S JAZZ MESSENGERS WITH THELONIOUS MONK (DELUXE EDITION) pairs a disc of previously unreleased outtakes with a newly remastered version of the original album.