Paris 1969 by Theolonious Monk (Blue Note)

This recording of a Paris concert at the Salle Pleyel in December 1969 catches Monk not only in his declining years, but with a new bassist and drummer and with the sudden guest appearance on the final two tracks of the legendary drums virtuoso Philly Joe Jones, playing alongside the great pianist and his longtime tenor saxophone confrere Charlie Rouse.

Monk had been touring Europe with Rouse, an unknown bassist from the Berklee School of Music called Nate Hygelund and a 17-year-old drummer Austin “Paris” Wright, the son of bassist Herman Wright, all of whom had performed at Ronnie Scott’s in London, at Duke Ellington’s 70th birthday party tribute in Berlin, at Cologne and Italy before they arrived in Paris.

At the Salle Pleyel Monk served up a predictable succession of his much-performed tunes with two songbook ballads and as usual at such concerts it must have been no easy task for him and Rouse to create variations and surprises.

But they are on anything but autopilot on these performances and it is the new, youthful rhythm section that moves them to play old themes with such spark and freshness, for that is the prevailing mood rising from these sounds some four and a half decades later.

They begin with the very familiar I Mean You, approached with zest and a mercurial spirit. Rouse wheels away from ther theme with an exploratory zeal above Wright’s crushing drums and Monk’s phrases spin off his keys with playful energy as if he is rejoicing to be back in the city that was the home-in-exile and refuge of his old friend and fellow piano genius Bud Powell and where he had made a key solo album in 1954.

Ruby My Dear follows with a long blues chorus by Rouse and Monk in full flow before Rouse returns for a final adenoidal flurry. The teenage drummer enjoys the verve of Straight, No Chaser and drives the rhythmic energy forward as Rouse chomps out the theme and Monk piles on the intensity in his solo.

Another Monk opus, Bright Mississippi is back by the Seine and Wright has more than his moment with the long opening solo, before the piano and tenor begin to play with the comfortably recognisable theme.

Light Blue follows with some warm Monk-Rouse interplay before a gorgeous Monk solo urged on by Wright’s responsive drums and Hygelund’s bouncing notes and leads on to a stride-like version of Epistrophy as if Monk had just been playing a Harlem duet with James P Johnson or Fats Waller, so emphatically does he salute his provenances.

On to the ballads and Don’t Blame Me is tinged with sadness as if life experience is radiating out of his notes. Rouse lays out and this is all Theolonious playing with melody, angles and cadences that are his alone as if 52 years are compressed within these five powerful minutes.

He follows this with a rare recorded rendition of the theme of I Love You Sweetheart Of All My Dreams and the loving piano flourishes of his tune to his wife, far away in New York, Crepuscule With Nellie.

The 10 minutes of Nutty bring Philly Joe onto the stage and the texture of the timbre is immediately different as a veteran partner is brought into the soundscape.

Rouse digs in and Philly Joe’s aggravated snares rattle behind Monk’s excited chorus before he takes his rousing and full-blooded solo, a nod to the genius of the piano player suddenly beside him.

As Rouse returns for the denouement and Philly Joe stays for a brief chorus of Blue Monk, it is like a fleeting goodbye in Paris of three great US jazzmen: Rouse, Jones and the inimitable Monk — originator, improvisor, composer and melodiser — his like never to arrive again by the Seine or anywhere.