Thelonious Monk - Underground [Orange Holland Import]

Underground is Thelonious Monk at his most mischievous, and this limited Holland import presses the 1968 classic on 180 gram orange vinyl.

Recorded for Columbia with producer Teo Macero, it captures Monk's long-running quartet with Charlie Rouse on tenor saxophone, Larry Gales on bass and Ben Riley on drums. That famous cover tells you the mood, with Monk cast as a wartime Resistance fighter in a cluttered hideout, and the music inside has the same sly wit.

The writing has the ease of a composer with nothing left to prove. "Ugly Beauty" is a rare waltz from Monk's pen, tender and slightly off-kilter in all the right ways. "Boo Boo's Birthday" is a bouncing dedication to his daughter, and "Green Chimneys" swings with gleeful, angular confidence. The set closes with "In Walked Bud," where a guest vocal from Jon Hendricks adds a playful, scat-driven twist to one of Monk's best-loved themes.

Rouse is the perfect foil throughout, his tenor tracing Monk's crooked lines as if he had been born knowing them.

As one of the last studio statements from this celebrated quartet, it makes a warm and witty farewell from one of jazz's great originals, and the bright orange wax suits its playful spirit.