Thelonious Monk: Blue Monk (1964 live version)

Ask me, and Ill tell you Live at the It Club is Monks best record. The latest two-disc version restores virtually everything recorded over two nights at the L.A. spot, and I dare anyone to find a 15-second stretch that doesnt inspire. Naming just one highlight is an impossible task, so why not start at the beginning, with an 11-minute take of Blue Monk, which happens to be one of my favorite pieces to play on my own piano. Monks oeuvre is so small that he recorded a handful of compositions over and over, and yet he still found new things to say each time through. Here his explorations are deep and wide, and he brings out the best in his bandmates, which is the most we can ask of any leader.