Don Cherry – “Monk’s Mood”
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Free Factory Records (reissue)
Don Cherry Quintets: Copenhagen 1963 & Hilversum 1965
Don Cherry (trumpet), Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone), John Tchicai (alto saxophone), Don Moore (bass), JC Moses (drums)
This fascinating and rare recording documents a fiery rendition of “Monk’s Mood” featuring Archie Shepp on tenor saxophone and Danish alto saxophonist John Tchicai alongside Cherry. There are no improvised solos on this live take, only the melody is played.
(from completecommunion blog)
Five tracks, three from a 1963 Copenhagen concert, just few days after the quintet recorded Niel Holt’s Future One soundtrack. Consequences was taken from that lp, and along with the opening Coleman’s Emotions, sounds like Archie Shepp’s Fire Music: hot rhythms, breathtaking horn blows, confrontational attitude: October Revolution in music. Time’s up also for a pianoless, but touching, Monk’s Mood. This show was broadcasted by Danish Radiohusets, and it seems that those three tracks would be all that remains.
A few points of interest include what I initially thought was a mistake, but after further listening discovered must have been intentional… they play the first measure of each A section as a bar of 3/4, rather than the usual 4/4 with the C major chord anticipated on beat four of the first bar. An interesting choice. There were a couple of spots where Shepp plays some solo “fills” that I just had trouble hearing. Particularly in bar 16 when he unleashes a fury of notes that was difficult to transcribe, because of both his low level in the mix and just because it is Arhie Shepp. There is a similar ripping phrase right into the last fermata that I left out. The one bit of the melody they give to Shepp is the last four on the bridge and he utterly shreds that one short phrase. His signature growling tone is both powerful and humorous.
